Afghanistan bears absolutely no resemblance to Germany, in any way that I can think of--people, geography, culture, history, economy, religion, national identity--no resemblance at all.

Afghanistan eats up countries that come in and think they can transform it, for one reason or another. After ten years, the Russians left with their tails between their legs and a bad taste in their mouths. I guess the Russians thought that expanding their borders from Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan to include Afghanistan was a good first step towards going further and absorbing Pakistan. Then they'd have Iran and all it's oil about halfway surrounded. The Afghans taught the Russkies that trying to take them over was a really bad idea.

I only hope it doesn't take us that long to figure out the futility in continuing to attempt to change a situation that doesn't want or need to be changed.