Book Review

Forget the Kite Runner.

If you want a good read on Afghanistan, pick up Flashman by George MacDonald Fraser. It chronicles the misadventures of Henry Flashman, a cad, coward, and bully who, to his horror, finds himself in Afghanistan during one of the greatest military disasters in British history - the flight from Kabul in 1842. From a military history perspective, it's a fascinating read. From a literary perspective, it's a fun read. But be warned: the dastardly Flashman is an arrogant, racist, misogynistic jerk.

My pleasure in the story was tempered, however, by the sinking feeling that history is repeating itself. Little seems to have changed here since Flashman's time, beyond the arrival of the internal combustion engine. Afghanistan is like some circle of hell, where the same story is played out over and over. It seems Afghanistan's cycle of war, cruelty, and ignorance has been continuing for a thousand years, and I wonder if it can ever be broken, or if it is too embedded in the Afghan psyche, a genetic memory that casts an unshakable pall over the country.