I lived in Kuwait for a while, so knew people involved in the 1991 war. Most have dies or moved on now so I am out of touch.

We used to go to Iraq every weekend cos you could drink there and it was a lot more civilised than the rest of the middle east.

On your other point - the last person to actually successfully conquer Afghanistan was Alexander the Great. Everyone else has suffered a bloody nose there.

I used to work with Afghan construction workers in Kuwait. Those are seriously tough people.