The bumps are from Kipling. I trust that no one on this forum would consider this famous poem in the least bit racist; nor is the subject of this thread related in any way to race relations.
You will note the following:
1. Bombardment from the air will be ineffective.
2. Massive Gulf War-style assault will be impossible
3. Helicopter brigades can be effective within the limits of their tactical objective.
4. The country of Afghanistan really isn't; it is a cartographical artifact that can be partitioned between its heighbors.
It appears that a coalition of Arab or Farsi forces that would partition Afghanistan between themselves with our tactical assistance is the most appealing course of the war. Our assistance will be given in return for cooperation in the areas of our security concerns. Our continuing military presence in the occupying countries for years after the military phase is over is a virtual certainty.
The worst enemy of an Islamic militant is then not the Western man, a Jew or an American; not his corrupt and dictatorial national ruler, -- it is his neighbor running a coffee shop, a car dealer, a tourist guide: a modest economic man, nominally his fellow Muslim, crossing over to the global economic network and ultimately -- to the ascending Western Civilization.In other words, the Islamic militant is hostile first of all to the First Amendment--to the idea of live-and-let-live tolerance and aggressive "We must all hang together or surely we will all hang seperately" cooperation which formed this nation and has gradually coopted more diversity within it.
"It is my hypothesis that the fundamental source of conflict in this new world will not be primarily ideological or primarily economic. The great divisions among humankind and the dominating source of conflict will be cultural. Nation states will remain the most powerful actors in world affairs, but the principal conflicts of global politics will occur between nations and groups of different civilizations. The clash of civilizations will dominate world politics. The fault lines between civilizations will be the battle lines of the future."