Quote Originally Posted by youngmedic View Post
From the time of Hannibal, nobody has won a war against the local Afghani's. The Soviets killed 1 to 2 million Afghanis, displaced another 5 to 10 million, 1/3 of the countries total population, and we all know how that ended. Their warrior culture and terrain make it impossible to win unless you just shoot everything that moves... or go with a nuke.
You have to remember, the only reason the tide turned for the Afghans during the Soviet occupation was because we started giving them munitions, money and training... If the USSR had really comitted and we didn't lend a hand they'd all be part of the Russian Republic of Afghanistan.
But historically, yes, no one has ever conquered the Afghanistan frontier in over 3000 years of recorded history. But we are making headway in that. Because of the conflict over there we have adapted and even indoctrinated our forces in true asymmetric warfare, which as JFK predicted- the future of war will not be against standing uniform armies but will be against smaller more maneuverable and guerrilla forces. Of course this was before we really got heavily involved in Vietnam, and we all know how big of a lesson that was.