With a loud clang that rent the night air of the remote countryside, we smashed into an unlit road barrier. Guards came scurrying down the hillside, rifles ready. It was just before midnight, not far from the Afghanistan city of Herat. We trembled, but the guards were relieved that we had stopped to pay the road toll, took our money and waved us cheerily on our way.
No, this did not happen recently. It was exactly 40 years ago, and the start of a crazy adventure twice across Afghanistan en route to Pakistan and India. In a bright orange Land Rover we, six women and four men, toured the country for several weeks. We were gawped at, but never molested - unlike in Iran, where police tried to fondle the women, or Turkey, where our tents were burgled by soldiers. We ate freshly baked bread and haggled furiously in the bazaars, but were always greeted with smiles.
I am not trying to wallow in personal nostalgia, but to point out that Afghanistan is more complex than editorial writers and politicians claim. US President Barack Obama and his allies are in a deep hole in Afghanistan, and need to think unconventionally to get out of the morass.
For most of the last 30 years, 'war torn' has most accurately described Afghanistan, but for 40 years previously, the country enjoyed peace and relative prosperity. Some diplomats described the capital Kabul as 'the Paris of central Asia'.
That was going too far: Kabul was still dustily impoverished. But without over-romanticising, Afghanistan in the 1960s and 1970s offered a pleasant stop overland to India, and the longer you stayed, the more charmed you became. On several visits, I followed camel trains of Kuchi nomads laden with pots and pans, bicycles and snotty-nosed kids; saw exquisitely pacific Buddha images being excavated near Jalalabad; climbed the hills of Kabul dotted with mud and brick hovels and the most fascinating faces; watched young men and women, some unveiled and wearing short skirts, go to Kabul University; and never saw a single Kalashnikov or any other gun until I went to the palace to interview then-president Mohammed Daoud. My impression was of a proud people fighting impoverishment in a tough land that the imperial dogs of Britain and Russia had mauled.
Daoud pleaded for greater Western commerce with Afghanistan to balance the Soviet influence that he had inspired when Washington lost interest. A few weeks later, Daoud was assassinated by rivals who sought to bring Afghanistan into the Soviet orbit. The US funded fighters to take back Afghanistan for Islam. The rest is history.