WHEN 15,000 CORPSES of the British Army of the Indus were freezing on the Hindu Kush passes in January 1842, Shah Soojah, the puppet Afghan king whom the British had installed in 1839, continued to rule in Kabul. As soon as the British were defeated, the Afghan coalition disintegrated, and no faction was strong enough to dislodge Shah Soojah from his Bala Hissar citadel.
Afghanistan is in a similar situation now. The Kabul Communists are supported by only a small minority of ...