"In hand-to-hand combat, Samuri Klingons always win. Not nec because they are good, but because death is the highest honour."

Allow me to drag this conversation back to the realm or reason.

#1. There are some individuals willing to take suicide missions.

#2. These people exist in ALL societies. Yes, we have US citizens who will take suicide missions for their government.

#3. Islam does not require ALL (or even a majority) to become suicide bombers.

If it did, we would have been destroyed long ago. Simple math. They infiltrate our boarders (not that hard to do) and drive cars loaded with explosives into buildings. Eventually, we are gone. Every suicide bomber takes out 10 people or more.

Simply put, the Afghan people are fighting to keep their homes safe from us.

We are the invaders.

They know the terrain better than we do.

They are more motivated to stop us on their home ground.

They can hide amongst the locals when not fighting us.

There is NOTHING here that we have not run into in EVERY invasion.

We had it when we were shooting Indians.
The Brits had it with the Zulus.

Invasions are the costliest wars. We did better in Kuwait because we shelled them for MONTHS. We made sure they didn't eat or sleep. Then we mopped them us.

Do the same thing in Afghanistan.

But the politics are different.

Again, you can't use the military to fight a political conflict.