“Morally it is wicked . . . politically it is a blunder”: does Churchill’s verdict on making war in Afghanistan still hold true?From The Irish Times - Books
By David Murphy
Mark Twain once allegedly stated that “history does not repeat itself but it does rhyme”. For historians, politicians and military commanders it is very tempting to make comparisons between historical military campaigns and modern conflicts. This can be an inherently dangerous practice but perhaps nowhere offers more potential for such comparison than the former North-West Frontier region of British India, which now forms the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. Since 2001 we have seen the conflict in Afghanistan develop in ways that bear startling similarities to previous conflicts in that troubled land. A key factor for successful campaigning in this region is establishing control of the North-West Frontier, an objective that remains as elusive for modern armies as it did for the forces of the British Empire in the late 19th century. 
