In the last decade, much of Afghanistan's cultural heritage was removed or destroyed; the Kabul Museum was looted and the Bamiyan Buddhas were dynamited by the Taliban.
No Taliban or al-Qaida leader was charged with the destruction of Afghanistan's sixth-century Bamiyan Buddhas, which were dynamited in 2001.
Both biographies skip lightly over the incident, simply reporting Mr Sharon's lame excuse, which Israel's leaders claimed to believe, that his soldiers failed to notice the villagers hiding in the attics and cellars of the houses that were dynamited.
Their destruction was reminiscent to that of the Buddhist statues of Bamiyan, which were dynamited out of existence in 2001 by the Afghan Taliban despite appeals from fellow Muslims.
Pointing at the cliffs where the 6th-century statues were dynamited and destroyed by the Taliban in 2001, he explains: "When you live in a country like Afghanistan, you have a different way of thinking about danger.
The story goes that Hitler was so impressed with the resulting view that when the German army retreated and blew up all Florence's bridges, he intervened to spare the Ponte Vecchio (although the approaches were dynamited and badly rebuilt).
