Engels on Afghanistan

 Marx said that history perhaps repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce. 

With the withdrawal of American and NATO armed forces, leaving behind to await their fate many of their Afghan allies, farce may be the wrong word. 

However, Engels did write about the British and how they exited their doomed occupation of Afghanistan back in the 19th century.

 It is indeed an echo of current events.

The British occupiers having imposed their puppet ruler upon the Afghan people led to the situation where  "...the Afghans were noways content to be ruled by the Feringhee Kaffirs (European infidels), and during the whole of 1840 and ’41, insurrection followed on insurrection in every part of the country..." Yet the British commander  "declared this to be the normal state of Afghan society, and wrote home that every thing went on well, and Shah Soojah’s power was taking root. In vain were the warnings of the military officers and the other political agents..." The clung deperately to power through a process where "...the Afghan chiefs were subsidized, or rather bribed...to keep them out of mischief..." but the administration "...was informed of the impossibility of going on at this rate of spending money..." The decision was made that "All Afghanistan was to be evacuated..."

Engels concludes his article

"Thus ended the attempt of the British to set up a prince of their own making in Afghanistan."

Afghanistan by Frederick Engels (marxists.org)