I just finished reading The Places in Between by Rory Stewart, a chronicle of his walk across Afghanistan.The most significant observation I learned from the book was the closeness between Iran and Afghanistan. Almost every young man Stewart met had worked at one time in Iran - whether to earn enough money to buy a wife, or just to have enough money to eat.That inspired me to take another look at the map.Afghanistan shares a long, flat border with Iran. Afghanistan also shares a long, very mountainous border with Pakistan.All of the attention of the US military involvement in Afghanistan is focused on Al Qaeda and the Taliban in the eastern and southern parts of Afghanistan. We're adding tens of thousands of soldiers there.Critics of our policies, most recently George Will, discuss our involvement in Afghanistan only from the perspectives of nation building and rooting out terrorists who are dangerous to us.Nobody mentions the Iran connection. Is this the elephant in the room?We now...(Read Full Post)