While this may seem like a harmless patriotic statement that any country would make, I would caution against such a line, and more to the point, defending such a statement at any cost.
As history can be read by to mean anything that you want it to. I have heard that China even discovered...
Pride is a good thing, the tribal people should be proud of their role in history. But pride can also be a bad thing if taken too far. In allowing the Al-Queda riddled Taliban to have complete freedom in their land, they have become complicit in the terrorism that their "guests" have rained...