I heard an interesting phone call to a radio show recently from a serviceman who has done tours in both Iraq and Afghanistan. He said he believes that Afghanistan is a more winnable situation because the Afghans have a sense of nationalism - - they consider themselves “Afghans” before anything else. On the other hand, Iraqis do not have a strong sense of being “Iraqis” and instead tend to identify more with their individual ethnic tribes.
The serviceman did add, however, that both countries are ultimately winnable.
“He said he believes that Afghanistan is a more winnable situation because the Afghans have a sense of nationalism - - they consider themselves “Afghans” before anything else.”
That was not my observation. The Pashtuns hate the Tajiks, the sunni hate the shia, everyone hates the Hazara and the Kuchi, etc. etc. The ones I worked with could not get along with each other.