Word: terraine
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...brass leading conventional forces--they operated under very restrictive rules during the Gulf War--and they have had their setbacks. A Delta Force team was chewed up in the streets of Mogadishu in 1993, when it tried to capture Somali warlord Mohammed Aidid. And in Afghanistan, where the terrain is about as unforgiving as any on earth, and the population as warlike, they won't be able to hold territory for long...
...take a stand against the Taliban, Washington must decide how to eradicate the terrorist threat emanating from a land that has proved to be the graveyard of every previous foreign invader. Afghanistan is a place where warfare is a way of life and fighters use battle toughness and treacherous terrain to compensate for lack of equipment. "Ours is a jihad against those who brought suffering on the Afghan people and violated Islamic teaching," Omar has said. "The Taliban will fight until there is no blood in Afghanistan left to be shed." That would not be just Afghan blood, but American...
Circled by high terrain and nations struggling with their own Islamic unrest, Afghanistan is among the hardest places on earth to fight. Other worries: millions of land mines, a harsh climate and a population famous for resisting invasion...
...armor. The landing force will have to walk and fight the opposition with the same light weapons the Talibs have. But the Talibs have been fighting for 30 years now. This generation has grown up with rifles in hand. They are adept at making ambushes. They know the terrain by heart. The landing force will not be able to protect its rear. All communication and supply lines will be vulnerable. Unless you mount fortified checkpoints along your lines, everything will be blown up, destroyed or stolen...
...logistical experience gained in the Afghan war of 1979-89; indeed, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan turns out to have been one of those events that unexpectedly changes the world. It hastened the demise of the Soviet Union, as poorly trained young Soviet troops got massacred in hostile terrain. It convinced American policymakers, who supported the Afghan resistance, that the U.S. could wage war by proxy, spending treasure but no American blood. And most important, it armed and radicalized a generation of extremists--bin Laden among them--who flocked to Afghanistan from all over the world and who now assist...