Iraq and Afghanistan

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Iraq is nervously preparing for elections in April, amid rising sectarian tension between Sunni and Shia which has seen violence reach 2008 levels. Mark Urban is in Baghdad, where the forecast is not optimistic. Historian William Dalrymple has been researching the history of the unsuccessful British invasion of Afghanistan in the 19th Century. He was in Kandahar recently, and asks whether we will ever learn anything from history about the viability of more recent invasions. (Photo: An Iraqi policeman looks at the electronic voter ID card he received from election commission officials in the central city of Najaf on March 2, 2014. Credit: Haidar Hamdani/AFP/Getty Images)