Afghanistan is particularly hard to conquer primarily due to the intersection of three factors. First, because Afghanistan is located on the main land route between Iran, Central Asia, and India, it has been invaded many times and settled by a plethora of tribes, many mutually hostile to each other and outsiders. Second, because of the frequency of invasion and the prevalence of tribalism in the area, its lawlessness lead to a situation where almost every village or house was built like a fortress, or qalat. Third, the physical terrain of Afghanistan makes conquest and rule extremely difficult, exacerbating its tribal tendencies. Afghanistan is dominated by some of the highest and more jagged mountains in the world. These include the Hindu Kush, which dominates the country and run through the center and south of the country, as well as the Pamir mountains in the east. The Pamir Knot — where the Hindu Kush, Pamir, Tian Shan, Kunlun, and Himalayas all meet is situated in Badakhshan in northeast Afghanistan.

Trump operates by a policy of ‘confuse and move’. He makes a shocking statement or behaves in a shocking way, draws the world’s attention to himself, and then moves on to whatever is next on his agenda - a further shocking act or statement eclipsing what went before; the news agenda moving too fast for substantive analysis. But some behaviour is too shocking to be left undealt with - and some regions of the world have not been groomed to accept whatever the president does.

It’s an American election year - many believe the Soleimani attack was a convenient ‘confuse and move’ tactic to put the issue of impeachment on the back-burner, to focus American minds on wicked foreign enemies. Instead, a president who promised no more wars, looks on the brink of starting one.