You may recall that in some of my previous posts I mentioned my interest in the Victorian era and the British Empire during the 19th Century, including events concerning the rule of India by both ‘The Honourable East India Company’ and ‘The British Raj’.
I have also mentioned that I have a small collection of Victorian military medals, a couple of which bear the names of places which are prominently featured in today’s media … “Kabul” and “Kandahar”.
Yes, British soldiers have been there before and, along with their Indian counterparts, they had a bloody rough time of it; and I do mean “bloody”.
I won’t go into details of all the military disasters, treachery and massacres suffered by British armies during the three ‘Afghan Wars’, as they are well documented elsewhere …. (example)
However, whilst I hope that there is a peaceful solution to all the present chaos, I can also understand why Harold Macmillan, a former British Prime Minister, advised colleagues that the first law of politics should be
“Never invade Afghanistan” !
bigjohn 
