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Opinion

The 'nice' Taliban delusion

Wishful thinking dominates idea that religious movement has softened

| Afghanistan
Afghan family stand outside their tent at a refugee camp in Herat in October 2018; interminable fighting and drought have created millions of refugees.   © Reuters

Henny Sender is a managing director at BlackRock in Hong Kong and a former Financial Times correspondent.

There was always a lot of wishful thinking in and around Afghanistan; indeed, even to regard that mountainous land between clashing empires as a country is itself a fantasy.

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