"The Only Thing New in the World is the History You Don't Know."

Harry S. Truman said that. I remembered that quotation when I read this story in today's New York Times about the U.S. hiring out security to warlords in Afghanistan.

Is there anyone in Fort Fumble or in the White House who has any frakking idea whatsoever who they are dealing with over there? Do they know anything the recent history of Afghanistan?

Those are serious questions.

For if they did, they would know that Afghanistan was effectively carved up by a series of warlords after the Soviet Army left in 1989. The national government controlled only the area around Kabul. The warlords, hell, any group which had some AK-47s and could set up barricades on a highway did so and extorted "taxes" and "tolls" from travelers and truckers. The warlords' militias battled each other for influence and control of territory.

It was because of the rampant corruption and anarchy of the post-Soviet warlord era that the Taliban arose (with the help of Pakistan's ISI) and why such a group of brutal medieval religious goons were welcomed by the people of Afghanistan.

And, because our own government is aiding and abetting a rebirth of Warlordistan, w/they are sowing the seeds for a return to power by the Taliban.

Harry Truman was right.