At the Crossroads

One reason Afghanistan is still at war is that its history has not yet been properly written. To put the problem another way, peace still eludes the country partly because its main challenge has not yet been fully identified — or even clearly stated. Instead, Afghanistan’s real history tends to lurk in the shadows of larger stories, those of Safavid Persia, Mughal India, the British Raj, czarist Russia, the Cold War. Afghanistan has also been a victim of endless cliché. To list just a few hackneyed catchphrases: a safe haven for terrorism, the graveyard of empires, the Great Game, the Tournament of Shadows, the Heart of Asia. Take your pick: every one is a caricature that conceals deeper complexities and simpler truths.

Phil Halton’s Blood Washing Blood is mercifully free of these defects. A former soldier, Halton has produced a serious history of the century that followed the...