“Namak Mandi Shinwari” (Part Fourteen of the Review)

Milton Bearden was an obscure and little-known intelligence officer at that time, but he wasn’t obscure and little-known at the very same time – an enigma and paradox – given that he ran the most important and significant enterprise and operation of his time, namely, a covert war on behalf of Washington against what was then the Soviet Union in Afghanistan. It was a lucrative and well-funded enterprise and operation as well. And he ran it almost flawlessly and successfully. He waged a covert war against America’s sole and singular peer competitor and the biggest empire and military in the whole world, and almost flawlessly and successfully for that matter. And who knows if that’s even his real name! Usually, no one knows their real names. They are anonymous, concealed, hidden, and secret identities in many cases and instances.