“In short, these guys are not that good in a purely military sense. So why have they never been conquered?” How Afghan men fight: Richard Kidd is a West Point graduate who became an international relief worker. He was providing food relief on the Afghan-Tajik border in 1993 and was in Afghanistan again in 1998 with the UN’s mine clearance program. He wonders if the US is prepared to battle these people.

This will not be a pretty war. Our opponents will not abide by the Geneva Conventions. There will be no prisoners unless there is a chance that they can be ransomed or made part of a local prisoner exchange. We may see videos of American prisoners being killed.

It will be a war of wills and, conversely, of compassion and character. We must show our enemies a level of ruthlessness that has not been part of our military nature for a long time. We will have to kill our enemies – members of the Al Qaeda terrorist network, religious fanatics, and those who support them. We will have to bribe fighters away from the Taliban, and sow disinformation and dissent.

But to those who are not our enemies – the proud people of Afghanistan – we must show a level of compassion probably unheard of during war, by providing immediate humanitarian relief and making a long-term commitment to creating a stable Afghanistan. We should do this not only for humane reasons, but also as a matter of shrewd military logic – to keep people from turning against us. Christian Science Monitor