Retreat from Kabul: The Catastrophic British Defeat in Afghanistan, 1842

[unhappycamper]

Using research from contemporary letters, dispatches, and journals, author Patrick Macrory provides a gripping account of what is known as the First Afghan War.

The war was Britain's folly: at the height of its power in India, Britain sought to create stability in the subcontinent—and prevent Russian and Persian encroachments—by removing a colorful and popular leader from the Afghan throne and replacing him with the unpopular, though legitimate, king.

The experiment ended with a British resident in Kabul butchered by an angry mob, a British envoy shot by an Afghan leader during a discussion—his dismembered corpse hung in the Kabul bazaar—and the ill-fated retreat of the British, which resulted in the death of 16,000 people.

Retreat From Kabul is the compelling and gruesome story of how the world's greatest military power learned a bloody and previously unimagined lesson by underestimating the Afghan' iron resistance to foreign invasion and intrigue. It is a tale of heroism in the face of unspeakable brutality, of diplomatic folly, of great sacrifice, and of terrible tragedy. It is an entrancing look at what happens when cultures collide.

[msongs]

1. Obama and his friends are constitutional lawyers, not historians lol nt

[OutNow]

2. From the height of power to defeat in Afganistan

I hope the author got a three book deal out of this.

Vol 1 - Retreat From Kabul - the British at their height of power learned a bloody lesson

Vol 2 - Retreat From Kabul - the Soviets at their height of power learned a bloody lesson

Vol 3 - Retreat From Kabul - the Americans at their height of power learned a bloody lesson