Excellent article on Afghanistan

[Wdll]

While I can see how creating friendly forces from the local population could be one solution (Alexander the Great did it just fine), I disagree that pure violence wouldn't do the same. IF, USA wasn't at least trying to save innocent lives, IF USA was there to capture the land and IF there wasn't much democracy back there, an extermination strategy would work. Sure, it wouldn't make many friends elsewhere, but fear is a great motivator for peace.

I hope I am proven wrong, but I don't see any real long lasting victory in the area unless suddenly the population changes beliefs.