>>>>Irony understood.
>>
>>Phew! ;-)
>>
>>Neither the British nor Russians did particularly well in Afghanistan, so possibly not as big a surprise to everybody?
>>
>>Perhaps the Chinese will do better, and probably without invading. ;-)
>
>Why would Chinese even think of Afghanistan? Helping establishing a democracy in another country is the last thing on their mind :)

When was it democracy that was the cause? For Brits it was just empire building and, well, the spice must flow. For Soviets, it was their fear that they'd get surrounded again like in 1919 so they always sought to cordon themselves off with a buffer zone of at least friendly countries. With the US, it's Brzezinsky who invented the taliban to spite the Soviets, IOW "we'll pact with any devil, if only it's sufficiently anticommunist". As usual, it bit back.