How Screwed Up Is Afghanistan? Look at Their Schoolbooks.

The Afghans have figured out a way to produce a history textbook that everyone can accept.   Make sure it stops at 1973.

Afghanistan's newly approved history textbook is free of the last four decades of the country's history.   No Soviet invasion, no Mujaheddin, no Taliban, no American invasion, all the stuff Afghan leaders feel gets in the way of forging a national identity.

''Our recent history tears us apart,'' Afghanistan's Education Minister, Farooq Wardak, said. ''We've created a curriculum based on the older history that brings us together, with figures universally recognised as being great. These are the first books in decades that are depoliticised and de-ethnicised.''

Great.   The best way to learn about Afghanistan is to not learn about Afghanistan.   Makes perfect sense, no?  You betcha.