and instead go to the Library. Or a well stocked newsstand and get the November 6 New York Review of Books and read No Good Men Among the Living: America, the Taliban, and the War through Afghan Eyes.

Where you will perhaps not be surprised that

“Dr. Hafizullah, Zurmat’s first governor ,had ended up in Guantanamo because he’d crossed Police Chief Mujahed. Mujahed wound up in Guantanamo because he crossed the Americans. Security chief Naim found himself in Guantanamo because of an old rivalry with Mullah Qassim. Qassim eluded capture , but an unfortunate soul with the same name ended up in Guantanamo in his place. And a subsequent feud left Samoud Khan, another pro American commander, in Bagram prison while the boy his men had sexually abused was shipped to Guantanamo……

Abdullah Khan found himself in Guantanamo charged with being Khairullah Khairkhwa, the former Taliban minister of the interior which might have been more plausible----if Khairkhwa had not also been in Guantanamo at the time………”

Rory Stewart was at one time the official in charge of the British zone of occupation in Iraq. (He described  watching the New Year’s fireworks from on top of his headquarters with a group of the local notables. One of whom made a remark which caused Stewart to say “but I happen  to know that you tried to have me killed last week”. To which the notable responded “oh, hah, hah, hah,” slapping Stewart on the back “but it was nothing personal.”)

He’s now Chairman of the Defense Committee of the House of Commons. He does not believe that all “do good” interventions fail- that Bosnia was a success. But he does think that…..well read the article and you’ll find out. He quotes the Prime Minister’s saying that the strategy depended on “the creation of a new and genuinely inclusive government in Iraq” (pigs could fly-Flavius) and other motherhood- and- God effusions from sincere, scrupulous and clueless representatives of all  parties.

And then points out that OBTW it ain’t gonna happen. “Why should we be any better at targeting Isis than we were at targeting the Taliban and al-Qaeda?”

“Governance...the rule of law...etc.have different meanings in different cultures and are shaped by very local structures of power...Building a state...requires deep knowledge  of the...character of an individual country...And (that) demands that (we) acknowledge how little we know...”

Fat chance,

But read it for yourself.