Learning from history, superior technology, and discipline have defined some of the most successful military campaigns by Western civilizations. The tradition continues and this fact holds true in the case of U.S military campaigns in U.S and Afghanistan, too. Geoffrey Parker argues that throughout most of its military history, the west has placed great emphasis on superior technologies to gain edge over rivals (Parker 2009). In addition, discipline has also served western military forces well and helped them achieve victories despite having significantly smaller forces than the enemies. One of the most awe-inspiring historical examples comes from Spanish Conquest of the Inca Empire. Francisco Pizarro defeated last Incan Emperor Atahuallpa with only 180 soldiers while the Incan Emperor had 30,000 men at his disposal. But despite numerical disadvantage, the Spanish easily overwhelmed the Incans because of superior weaponry such as artillery, guns, and cavalry all of which were aliens to the Incans (The History Channel n.d.). In addition, western leaders just like Napoleon and George Washington have been avid readers of classical military strategies texts which may be due to their underlying beliefs that effective military strategies are timeless. Moreover, unlike other regions, religions and ideologies have played little or no role in forming the cultures of western military forces.

Western military forces were guided by the principle that a decisive victory is achieved through an absolute annihilation of rival forces which brings about enemy’s unconditional surrender. Western forces were not afraid to be ruthless and engage in ‘merciless’ war unlike some other warring societies such as Indians. While discipline and focus on technology was also a focus of other military cultures such as China and Japan, two factors that distinguished western military cultures from other major military cultures was flexibility and power to finance the changes. The changes are expensive in terms of both financial and human capital. The cost of wars also continued to increase over time with the introduction of new specialized weapons such as gunpowder weapons and improved defenses that eventually, only states with vast resources, like those in the west could effectively afford military expenditures. Western states also didn’t hesitate to exploit subject populations to support their military operations. The British had native Indians serving as soldiers in their regiments during the occupation of the Indian subcontinent. The western states also got edge by developing well-established financial systems such as in England where the credit could be obtained on attractive terms to fund the war.

When the United States attacked Afghanistan, it knew that it is going for war in one of the most difficult terrains in the world. No one has been able to conquer Afghanistan since the times of Mongols (Novaya Gazeta n.d.) and that includes one of the greatest super powers of the last century, Soviet Union. But the U.S knew that it has the political and economic system that has been quite efficient in diverting resources to military technology. Going back in history, U.S. economy did surprisingly amazing job of resource re-allocation during the WWII when many of the factories halted their normal operations and committed themselves to war effort. The satellite imagery, satellite navigation, internet, stealth technology and wireless communications all came out from a culture of military innovation. American leadership and military officials knew from history that Afghanistan’s terrain provides natural cover against aerial attacks and ground forces would face potentially high rate of causalities against the enemy who has better understanding of mountainous areas. In addition, Taliban and Al-Qaeda fighters had anti-air craft rockets which could be used to attack fighter jets.

The government and military again turned to its technological superiority to counter the disadvantages that prevented the Russians from conquering Afghanistan. Using lessons from history, the military deployed B-2 in Afghanistan that employ stealth technology and can hit targets from unusually high altitudes. But the military invention from Afghanistan campaign that has proven to be the most effective is drone. Drones have succeeded in taking out a number of high-profile Taliban and Al-Qaeda leaders of which the latest example is Ilyas Kashmiri (Huffington Post 2011). Thus, in the fashion of other historically successful western military campaigns, the U.S relied on both history lessons and superior military technology to minimize losses and quickly drive out Taliban from the provinces under their control.

The U.S military leaders also emphasized detailed planning in regard to Afghan war which included putting pressure on Pakistan to allow bases for flight missions. Military planning has long been a cornerstone of Western powers whether attack or defence. General George Washington managed to keep the British ignorant of the weaknesses of the colonial troops by constantly arranging attacks rather than adopting a defensive strategy. General Washington also knew some European military strategies and realized that the British wanted to gather all colonial forces in one place so as to defeat them at one swell swoop. General Washington made sure not to provide British forces with such an opportunity despite repeated British attempts (Historic Valley Forge n.d.).

Similarly, the United States went into Iraq with already a successful experience during the Gulf War of the 1990s. President Bush’s father, Bush Senior successfully led the allied campaign to liberate Kuwait from Iraqi occupation and the campaign was nothing less than absolute victory for the allied forces being led by the United States. The U.S. military moved quickly to secure the oil fields because it knew from 1990’s experience that Saddam’s forces would try to set fire to them. The military leaders drafted such an effective plan of conquering Baghdad that the U.S military conquered Baghdad without much resistance from the Iraqi Dictator Saddam Hussein’s forces. Before Iraq and Afghanistan campaigns, different intelligence agencies in the U.S worked usually independent of each other but the military realized that greater discipline as well as working coordination among the different intelligence agencies would improve intelligence gathering and help thwart potential terrorist attacks. In addition, superior soldier clothing and equipment have helped prevent a significant number of fatal injuries as well as loss of lives of the U.S armed forces. The U.S armed forces have lost thousands of soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan but the loss of lives has been significantly less than the Vietnam War due to improved military technology. Greeks also used technology to minimize loss of lives. Their invention of the phalanx formation was to help strengthen defense as well as attack capability. It also required strong discipline and coordination among the soldiers.
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