Commentary In addition to innumerable other untruths, obfuscations, instantly retracted briefing information, and implausible apologia for the horrifying shambles in Afghanistan, there is also a good deal of misstated history. American television commentators who do not know anything about the history of the region toss off aphorisms about “the graveyard of empires,” and assure their viewers that Afghanistan has a long record of attracting great powers and destroying them like a giant geopolitical Venus fly-trap. It is alleged that this began with Alexander the Great in the fourth century BC. In fact, Alexander besieged the king of what was then called Bactria in his mountain fortress but settled amicably by accepting Bactria as a client monarchy defending Alexander’s great empire from the barbarians to the north, and Alexander married the king’s daughter Roxanne for good measure. A number of his senior officers made similar tactical marriages and Alexander’s accepted legitimate …
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