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July 2009 turned out to be the worst month of the Afghan conflict for both British and American fatalities. For the British, who have the second-highest number of troops serving in the country, the death toll in Afghanistan has now surpassed the total lost in Iraq.
Proportionate to population, Britain, Canada, Denmark and Estonia have each lost more men there than the United States. Understandably, the war is increasingly controversial, with opposition at home mounting. The Netherlands is withdrawing troops next year, with Canada leaving in 2011.
Ironically, the month of the highest number of British casualties coincided with the 200th anniversary of Britain's first involvement with the country of Afghanistan.
"In 1809 a (British) diplomat named Mountstuart Elphinstone led Britain's first fact-finding mission to Afghanistan. In a land filled with strife and [divided] by independent factions, he met an elderly tribal leader and tried to convince him of the benefits of a firm central government.
"The leader's response? 'We are content with discord, we are content with alarms, we are content with blood,' the Afghan replied. 'But we will never be content with a master'" (Stephen Tanner, "Indomitable Afghanistan," Military History, August-September 2009).
The country has often been called "the graveyard of empires." In recent times, the Soviets were defeated after a decade of military involvement in Afghanistan. Over the long course of history, Darius the Great, Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan, Tamerlane and more recently the British in the 19th century and Soviets in the 20th all invaded Afghanistan. None was able to subdue the country and govern it as other nations have been governed.
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