BHO Relieves Afghan Senior US Commanding General For Telling The Truth.

[tombogan03884]

Will do.

Off the top of my head I can't think of any particular references on the British wars, but for accurate historical fiction check out the "Flashman " series by George MacDonald Fraser, the first one is about the the first Afghan war.
Charlie Wilsons War is a good view of the politics from the US  point of view, but doesn't get into any of the Soviet or Afghan reasoning.

[fightingquaker13]

Terrence Blackburn's "the Extermination of a British Army: The Retreat from Cabul" published 2008 is supposed to be good, but I've not yet read it. There are however a lot of good histories of British India dealing with the three Afghan wars (and oddly, none of them went well ).
FQ13
I've enclosed some exerpts from Blackburn's book. It seems interesting and full of contemporary accounts., but hey, I'm a geek like that. (note, scroll up for the excerpts. It starts with the intro, which is worth reading as its deja vue all over again, but its the end of the freebies, scroll up from there and you get some more chapters.)

http://books.google.com/books?id=Eiduxo3wZEQC&pg=PA226&lpg=PA226&dq=the+extermination+of+a+british+army&source=bl&ots=Z5po5b_P_1&sig=5kiMeWsVinrokXs2dJhdRUkw4Qw&hl=en&ei=qDa4TuSHE4ansQKk6cnPAw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&sqi=2&ved=0CC4Q6AEwAg#v=onepage&q&f=false

[Magoo541]

Its history worth reading Magoo. It also is the sort that makes you wonder why people like me (who teach political history) aren't rich, and why any future politician not paying attention in my class can't be severly beaten, as a means of "inspiring"the others. Its not pretty history either. Here's a bit from Rudyard Kipling's take on it:
FQ13
PS Sir Aurthor Conan Doyle also had Watson as an Afghan vet recovering from wounds suffered in the  battle of Maiwand (outside of Khandahar), that went south for the Brits. And we remember none of this why? I reserve the right to Gibbs slap W., Cheney and Obama next I see them.
 
When you're wounded and left on Afghanistan's plains,
And the women come out to cut up what remains,
Jest roll to your rifle and blow out your brains
An' go to your Gawd like a soldier.
Go, go, go like a soldier,
Go, go, go like a soldier,
Go, go, go like a soldier,
So-oldier ~of~ the Queen!
 

I read a little from Amin Saikal's "Modern Afghanistan: A history of struggle and survival" and it sounds like polygamy in the royal family has a big part in their struggle.  Why the hell would a man want more than one wife?  I mean some of it is obvious but then think about the rest of it in exponential terms!?!
Then there is the modern Isalm vs "regressive Islamic medivalism" in the '90s, I thought it was toungue in cheek when someone said it wouldn't take much to bomb some of Afghanistan back to the stone ages, and never thought of it in an ideolgical sense.
Can someone sign off on my transcripts for this class?