Doctrine and Reality in Afghanistan.

The article discusses U.S. counter-insurgency efforts in Afghanistan as of 2009. Afghanistan is a difficult theater of operations for outside military forces, the author indicates. Topics of discussion include U.S. and British failures to understand the extent of resistance in Afghanistan to anything that feels like foreign control, the 1979-89 war between the Soviet-backed Afghanistan government and its mujahadeen adversaries, and the power of non-state groups to rely on uses of force not controlled by any state.