Nost: A Special Forces buddy of mine helped smuggle Stinger missiles to the Muj from Peshawar over the Khyber Pass in Afghanistan during the Soviet-Afghan War.

I have another friend (ex-SEAL) who speaks fluent Pashtun/Pashto and spent three years there with the Muj, teaching them hit-and-run tactics and ambush.

No one can claim clean skirts on this one. Not the French or Germans, nor the Russians nor the US. I don’t remember the author off the top of my head, but there is a great book called “The Great Game”, which recounts the French and British and Russians all attempting to gain and hold sway over Central Asia from the mid-19th century into the early 20th century.

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

And those chickens can be really nasty bastards when they come back home to roost.