Some things never change

I just started reading Tournament of Shadows: the Great Game and the Race for Empire in Central Asia It starts by recounting the travels of William Moorcroft, a Briton who explored much of Central Asia. When entering Afghanistan in 1823 he found the region was "not unusually [] embroiled in a ferocious power struggle," and Moorcroft was warned that in particular the region of Waziristan was exceedingly dangerous and lawless.

As you may have heard, Afghanistan is now somewhat unsettled politically (the link is to an index of the Post's Afghanistan coverage), and Waziristan (now part of Pakistan) is the reputed location of Osama bin Laden (the story is a few months old but I have not seen anything to change it since).

Very interesting. Small wonder democracy is proving difficult to plant in the region.
- posted by Anonymous @ 9:21 PM