IGX

"The Great Game" by Peter Hopkirk. One of the most enjoyable books I've read about any subject. It covers the period in Afghanistan in the 19th century when Britain and Russia were vying for control of the region. You couldn't make some of this shit up if you tried. you basically had undercover British intelligence officers dressed as travelling magicians and tradesmen, spying, turning local war lords against the other side, getting into scrapes and escaping by the skin of their teeth. It's just a book everyone should read. The Brits took a real kicking there. The retreat from Kabul was particularly savage - 16,000 soliders, men, women and children butchered and picked off over the journey until only a few stragglers remained and made it to Jelalebad. Get it. Enjoy it.

Putting that one on the next Amazon order.

I highly recommend Flashman by G.M. Fraser (1975) as a superb fictional account of the retreat from Kabul, with very accurate portrayals of Elphinstone, Lord Cardigan, Paolo di Avitabile, etc. In some ways it is better than non-fiction for capturing the whole debacle on paper.

+1. Flashman series is excellent.

I've written a short book on the subject.

Title: Afghanistan - DO NOT TOUCH!

Page 1: Read title.

The end.

Slightly off topic, but not sure if this made it to the US. The movie, "The Ninth Company" is a sort of Full Metal Jacket movie about Russian conscripts training and deploying to Afghanistan during the occupation. It was a defining event for Russia on a par with 'Nam for the States. It is a truly great film and anyone with any interest in that region should watch it. It's recent enough and not a low budget affair.

Batboy's got a review just in the last couple weeks in the Product Review section or whatever it's called around here.

Gorbachev wrote:Slightly off topic, but not sure if this made it to the US. The movie, "The Ninth Company" is a sort of Full Metal Jacket movie about Russian conscripts training and deploying to Afghanistan during the occupation. It was a defining event for Russia on a par with 'Nam for the States. It is a truly great film and anyone with any interest in that region should watch it. It's recent enough and not a low budget affair.

Also slightly off topic, but I took a few Russian history courses in college and one of my professors ran a movie that was in Russian with subtitles. I can't even remember the conflict that served as the setting, but there was a soldier who'd fallen onto a mine and they couldn't move him. Whatever type of mine it was, it couldn't be disarmed, so the only choice was for him to eventually roll off and die. There was more to it, but that was the main point of it I think.

If anyone has seen it or has a vague idea of what I'm talking about, hit a ninja up.