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Thomas E. Ricks' daily take on national security.

29 common mistakes in Afghan war commentary

Check out this great list of how to get Afghanistan wrong. My favorite is No. 6: "Repeat some false historical cliché about Afghanistan. Only the historians will be able to call your BS in a convincing manner." Anyone writing about the war there would do well to check his or her copy against this critique.  ...

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MASSOUD HOSSAINI/AFP/Getty Images
MASSOUD HOSSAINI/AFP/Getty Images
MASSOUD HOSSAINI/AFP/Getty Images

Check out this great list of how to get Afghanistan wrong. My favorite is No. 6: "Repeat some false historical cliché about Afghanistan. Only the historians will be able to call your BS in a convincing manner." Anyone writing about the war there would do well to check his or her copy against this critique. 

Check out this great list of how to get Afghanistan wrong. My favorite is No. 6: "Repeat some false historical cliché about Afghanistan. Only the historians will be able to call your BS in a convincing manner." Anyone writing about the war there would do well to check his or her copy against this critique. 

While we’re on the subject of the Afghan war, if you’re in the DC area, later this month you can get a nice Afghan dinner at a fundraiser to help an outfit that does good things like giving seeds to Afghan widows. You can get more info by e-mailing to: kabultec@gmail.com

Thomas E. Ricks covered the U.S. military from 1991 to 2008 for the Wall Street Journal and then the Washington Post. He can be reached at ricksblogcomment@gmail.com. Twitter: @tomricks1
Tags: Afghanistan, History

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