Afghanistan

"Afghanistan's rugged terrain is honeycombed with natural caverns and man-made tunnels. The Hindu Kush mountains are pocked with caves scooped out of limestone by melting snow. In the sandstone foothills of the southeastern part of the country, everyone from warriors to farmers has carved tunnels that provide ideal hiding places for fighters and ammunition. The hideouts also include caves dug deep into the granite bedrock during the war with the Soviets in the 1980s. This underground warren is connected by crisscrossing passageways, and is equipped with escape tunnels. Some of these massive caves are large enough to drive a truck into, or to house a few tanks and a fighter jet."

"Sta de ishq de weeno daq sho zegaronah Sta puh meena ke byley zalmey saronah Ta tuh rashema zergai ze mah farigh shey Bey ley ta mai andekhney de zlar maronah De Delhi takht hayrawooma chey rayad kum Ze mah de khweley Pashtunkhwa de ghru saronah Ke tamamah dunya yohkhwa tu belkhwa ay Ze mah khwakh dey sta khali tush dagaronah."

"Remember the rights of the savage, as we call him. Remember that the happiness of his humble home, remember that the sanctity of life in the hill villages of Afghanistan, among the winter snows, is as inviolable in the eye of Almighty God, as can be your own."

"I want to colour over the bad memories of war on the walls, and if I colour over these bad memories, then I erase [war] from people’s minds. I want to make Afghanistan famous because of its art, not its war."

"The main scourge of our country is perennial foreign intervention... Only final cessation of foreign aggression will allow us to start solving all other problems of Afghanistan, economic and political."

"We will never be a pawn in someone else's game. We will always be Afghanistan."

"Thrice genial clime! Oh, favoured, sweet Cabul! Well art thou named the bless'd—the beautiful! With snow-peaked hills around thee,—guarding arms! Ah! would thy sons were worthy of thy charms! Wild are those tribes, a free but barbarous race, Crime still the shadow darkening Nature's face. What to the Affghan's eye is smiling earth? What scenes of glory?—things of little worth; Not his the finer joys, the charms of lore, The taste that brightens, and the thoughts that soar, His highest aim to lead his mountain horde, And bathe in blood his Koran-graven sword."

"Afghanistan is important enough – largely because of its strategic location – to try to influence, but it is not valuable enough to risk dominating."

"And many an Afghan chief, who lies Beneath his cool pomegranate-trees, Clutches his sword in fierce surmise When on the mountain-side he seesThe fleet-foot Marri scout, who comes To tell how he hath heard afar The measured roll of English drums Beat at the gates of Kandahar."