What have we apparently NOT learned in 20 years of occupation and war in the high mountains and deserts of Central Asia? What if instead of cooperating with the federal forces, they had refused to surrender? I suspect that, 150 years later, there would still be a guerilla war as nasty as anything in the Balkans, Northern Ireland, or … Afghanistan and Mesopotamia.īut I digress.
How would Union forces moving in to occupied defeated Texas in 1865 have fared if Texans had resisted that occupation? Texas’ “real” military forces were scattered to the battle fronts far from home but it had the Rangers, and the home guard and even some AmerInd allies (that had fought for the South). (Yes, there ARE Afghanis who love liberty in a way that American libertarians – or at least anarcho-capitalists) can agree with.) Now, Texas is a lot flatter than Afghanistan, but historically, the inhabitants of Texas – whether Tonkawa or Numu (Comanche) or Spanish or Mexican or Texian/Texican or Anglo – are just as ornery and prone to violence as any Afghani tribesman.
