Before Obama
Years ago, there was a war in Afghanistan. The U.S. was involved, but pretended otherwise. The fighters were Afghan men and the Russian Army. The Russians lost. As the two foes struggled amid the vast bareness of the country, Robert Kaplan ;embedded himself among the Afghan tribal fighters, long before our armed forces decided to embed journalists as a matter of course in its own current struggles.
Kaplan is probably the person about whom it was first said, "Been there, done that". He marches the mountains, eats the food, goes dirty and unwashed into the enemy camp to talk with the leaders. A great adventure by itself, this story is also hugely useful background to what is happening today.
Highly recommended.
