“Kabul today shows what Palestine was like at the time of Jesus.”
According to the narrator, this comparison is a common saying around the embassy halls in Afghanistan. He recalls it specifically with reference to his boss because, like the country, he is also stuck in the bronze age. His characterization of the country is it is it conspicuous on account of its very inconspicuousness; an ancient land inseparable from its ancient past.
“We are never prepared for what we expect.”
Sir Herbert knows his history. What he doesn’t know, of course, is the what the future course of history holds in store for Afghanistan, though he would likely not be at all surprised to find that that is just more of the same. The common thread running throughout the history of this ancient “inconspicuous” land is that foreigners continue to invade it, get bogged down and are eventually forced to withdraw. It is no great secret, it is wise to prepare for it and it is inexorably going to be the same story every time.
“I was about to plunge into the one of the world’s great cauldrons.”
Mark Miller, the narrator, has just received his first important assignment. Widely known to be the toughest assignment on record. Casting aside fears of dysentery and loneliness with equal bravado, he characterizes Afghanistan effectively: a cauldron is ancient metal (often bronze) pot for cooking a stew of multiple ingredients slowly over and open flame. It was a fair description of Afghanistan then and it is equally fair today.
“Afghanistan will never gain a single freedom by reverting to the caravan. It will save itself by generating true freedom in the villages.”
Miller makes this assertion in response to Ellen Jaspar’s excited prediction that in just a few short years the people will rid themselves of the stranglehold of the mullahs and “go back to the ancient freedom of the caravans.” The caravan is the book’s central metaphor for strengths and weaknesses of Afghanistan and provides the underlying question as to why its modern capital city was still trapped in an ancient Biblical past.
