Afutilestan (VII): The Great Game Revisited

Geography is destiny, Napoleon is reported to have said. I began to appreciate that political truism early on, thanks to marathon games of  Risk I  played as a kid.  According to Wikipedia, Risk was originally released in France in 1957, as La Conquête du Monde—The Conquest of the World. It was likely modeled on the period of history that historians …

Afutilestan (VI): Obama’s Decision

Back to the future in Afghanistan Irony often has the most exquisite timing. Today President Obama announces a massive escalation of the war in Afghanistan, doubling the number of troops that Bush left behind. And next week he travels to Oslo to pick up his Nobel War Peace Prize. So, what did those three months of careful deliberation net us? …