AFGHANISTAN: A History of Invasions

Dwight Peterson has forwarded to me a long piece by an expert on Afghanistan, of which the most interesting is this " Brief summary of major invasions of Afghanistan":

1. Alexander The Great invades @330 B.C. Inconclusive. Fails to subdue the region, is able to seize and fortify southwest portion and establish several garrisons. Gets a heavy arrow through the right lung for his trouble.
2. Arab fanatics @700 A.D. Inconclusive. Succeed in driving Greek-influenced and other Pagans into seclusion in the mountains, and establishing Islam as the dominant faith, but cannot pacify or control the area.
3. Indians under a variety of aggressive Hindu kings, @ 800 A.D. Disaster. Mountain range to the southeast becomes the "Hindu Kush" ("Death of Hindus.) Hindu states weakened, resulting in Islamic conquest of all northern India.
4. British Empire, two invasions, @ 1838 and @ 1878. First starts in disaster, with the massacre of three regiments (about 5,000 men) of British regulars, and a headlong retreat through the Hindu Kush, but ends in success. "Friendly" ruler established by British military force. Second succeeds early, with most of Afghanistan becoming a client state, small princes under British control, for the next 40 years. (Treaty of Gandamak, 1879.)
5. Soviet Union, lightning invasion including air-landing of armor, 1979. Something over 115,000 troops deployed. This was working, and had the place more or less subdued, until the USA supplied Afghan insurgents with sophisticated portable weapons. Most notably, groups that wound up very well armed included the Taliban, and Osama Bin Laden.