Originally Posted by
Asturias56
Afghanistan has always been pretty much the same size as you point out. The surrounding "empires" (Russia, Persia, Arab, China, Sikh, British etc) have always tried to chip bits off or take it over but really have never succeeded.
Lots of money, liberally and regularly dispersed to the various tribal entities, seems the best way of keeping some sort of peace & quiet ( a very relative term in those parts)
The maps I was referring were of the 12th century Afghani empire not 18th century AfghaniSTAN a more modern remnant of the Afghani Empire. The Afghani Empire was on both sides of the Indus River from the Arabian Sea to the mountains and all of the tributaries of the River Indus . The Afghani Empire predates Afghanistan , India , Pakistan and the modern borders and boundaries . The Tribal affiliations are very similar and the Area of the old Afghani Empire watershed is now being disputed by three nuclear armed countries . Water disputes are going to get more dangerous as the world warms . The Nile dams are creating similar threats as the Indus River threats to peace .
Orac is probably right again . The end is hours away , not weeks or months . I thought it might be a clever ploy , but it is beginning to look like Saigon 2.
My apologies , I am having trouble finding the links to the old maps that I was referencing , and nothing about them in my Chambers Dictionary of History . So it cannot be important .