Thursday, March 8, 2007 By Michael Scheuer "Afghanistan is again
being lost to the West, even as a coalition force of more than
5,000 troops launches a major spring offensive in the south of
the country. The insurgency may drag on for many months or
several years, but the tide has turned. Like Alexander's Greeks,
the British and the Soviets before the US-led coalition,
inferior Afghan insurgents have forced far superior Western
military forces on to a path that leads toward evacuation. What
has caused this scenario to occur repeatedly throughout history?
In the most general sense, the defeat of Western forces in
Afghanistan occurs repeatedly because the West has not developed
an appreciation for the Afghans' toughness, patience,
resourcefulness and pride in their history. Although foreign
forces in Afghanistan are always more modern and better armed
and trained, they are continuously ground down by the same kinds
of small-scale but unrelenting hit-and-run attacks and ambushes,
as well as by the country's impe