Ten years ago, the Afghanistan War looked like a swift and easy triumph for democracy. But even in the early days there were portents of the catastrophe to come.
Lawrence Scott Sheets
Lawrence Scott Sheets, who reported for Reuters and National Public Radio on the collapse of the Soviet Union, is the Caucasus project director of the International Crisis Group. This article is excerpted from his new book, Eight Pieces of Empire: A 20-Year Journey Through the Soviet Collapse (Crown, © 2011).
