Frontline discussion on the Afghan National Army

I will be chairing a discussion at the Frontline Club in London next Thursday 21 June on 'Can the Afghan National Army prevent civil war?' There will be a great panel for the discussion, including Horia Mosadiq, Afghanistan researcher at Amnesty International; Brigadier James Chiswell CBE MC, MOD Head of Overseas Operations; Dawood Azami, visiting scholar and award winning broadcast journalist working for the BBC World Service in London; Jonathan Steele,  Guardian columnist, roving foreign correspondent and author of Ghosts of Afghanistan; and Leo Tomlin, Cabinet Office Deputy Director Asia and Russia, and former Deputy Head of Helmand Provincial Reconstruction Team.

More details can be found here.  Hope you can make it.

Debunking myths about Afghanistan

In case you have absorbed some of the many myths associated with Afghanistan, veteran Guardian reporter Jonathan Steele has drawn up a debunking list of the ten most prevalent. Have the Afghans always beaten foreign armies? Check out the list, extracted from his latest book Ghosts of Afghanistan: The Haunted Battleground, Portobello, £25.