The battle had taken place on exactly the site of the British last stand of 1842. The sheer size and length of the feast and our own gluttony had saved us from walking straight into an ambush. It turned out that there had been a battle at Gandamak that very morning between government forces and a group of villagers supported by the Taliban. Instead we went that evening by the main highway direct to the relative safety of Jalalabad, where we discovered we'd had a narrow escape. Our fate is determined by our neighbours." It was nearly 5pm before the final flaps of naan bread were cleared away, by which time it became clear that it was now too late to head on to Gandamak. 'But we do not have the strength to control our own destiny. "Afghanistan is like the crossroads for every nation that comes to power," agreed Jagdalak.
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