Strengths and Limits of the Afghan Warrior

Oct. 29 -- Dressed in little more than sandals and tunics, and armed with 20-year-old weapons, these are the men that will face the American military as it takes to the ground in Afghanistan.

These are men who also belong to a lineage of warriors, whose ancestors frustrated legendary conquerors including Alexander the Great and Tamerlane, and whose fathers and grandfathers repelled the British and Soviet empires.

Their prowess has long won them respect. Veterans of the Soviet Union's 1979 to 1989 war there described them as "wolves," "shadows," and "evil spirits."

On Wednesday, a Pentagon spokesman gave them their latest praise. "They are proven to be tough warriors. We're in an environment they are obviously experts in, and it is extremely harsh," Rear Admiral John D. Stufflebeem said.

There are countless tales of Afghans withstanding subhuman conditions, living for years in tunnels made from drinking wells, or marching through snowy mountain passes in bare feet and sandals.

Dale Davis, director of the International Program at the Virginia Military Institute, said the Afghans are also incredibly brave — sometimes to an absurd extreme.

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In many battles with the Soviets, the Afghan warriors refused to lie prone while shooting at their enemies, he said. Instead, they exchanged fire standing up, considering that the only honorable way to fight.

Home Field Advantage

In addition to being hardened by years of war, Afghans benefit from ease with the forbidding terrain of their homeland.

The Afghans who fought the Soviets, widely known as mujahideen, often followed a strategy of attacking convoys in mountain passes. They would rocket the first and last vehicles, trapping those in between, and pick off the survivors as they fled into the unfamiliar surroundings.

Some were so experienced in these hit-and-run tactics that "they were more than a match for the Soviet elite troops who frequently made forays into the mountain areas," according to a 1989 U.S. Army report.