In 1842 as angry hordes were preparing to savage the British occupiers of Kabul, Afghan tribal leader, Abdullah Khan Achakzai, declared, ‘We must stop these occupiers right here right now, otherwise they will continue to ride the donkey of their desires into the field of stupidity.’ The seeds of that disaster began during the last Great Game fuelled by Russia phobia and the fear the strange-looking Cossacks were planning to use Afghanistan as a bridge to take India, the British colonial jewel.