Winston Bottomly and Valery Agapov had been exchanging information ever since the Russian invasion of Afghanistan on Christmas Eve 1979. “The whole issue of Afghanistan is complicated,” said Mercer, or he used very similar words.
Great Britain had problems with Russia back when India was part of the British Raj and the area has attracted interest from not only the countries mentioned, but China has flexed its muscles and of course there’s Pakistan and Iran, who have obvious interests over who’s in charge. I was thankful we did not dwell on that part of the world for long.
Mercer never commented on the rights or wrongs of previous American operations inside Afghanistan, or on the legitimacy of them. The terrorist atrocities on September 11th had given them enough reason to go in. Whether
