The US plan to launch a land invasion of Iran to capture the hidden weapons-grade uranium and seize the oil fields after the failure of its airstrikes could well  be as disastrous as the campaigns of Napoleon and Hitler to seize Russia, the British and the Americans to capture Afghanistan, and the American attempt to decimate the Vietnamese communists.   

In all these cases, stiff resistance by the opponents combined with the difficult terrain and adverse climatic conditions resulted in the invader’s humiliating defeat and retreat. 

In 1812, Napoleon’s Grande Armée of over 600,000 was forced to retreat from Russia, suffering a catastrophic loss of over 500,000 troops due to starvation, disease, the harsh winter and relentless attacks by better acclimatised Russian troops.

Commencing on October 19, 1812, the French retreat was characterised by constant harassment from Russian armies and Cossacks. The final death blow was delivered by “General Winter”.  By December 1812, fewer than 100,000 soldiers were able to return to France. The myth of Napoleon’s invincibility lay shattered. 

Thirty years later, in 1842, the British-Indian army retreating from Kabul after the First Anglo-Afghan War (1839-1842) was decimated by the Afghans. The 16,000 soldiers and camp followers, led by General Elphinstone, fell victim to biting cold, rugged terrain, and the sharp shooting Afghans firing from mountain heights. 

Only one man made it to the British base in Jalalabad. When the sole survivor, army surgeon Dr. William Brydon, was asked where the army was, he said: “I am the army”. Indeed, on that date, it was a one-man army. 

Hitler’s invasion of the Soviet Union in December 1941 had to return to base in disarray, exhausted and ill-equipped for the cruel  Russian winter, the Russians’ scorched earth policy and fierce offensives by the defenders. Given the massive troop losses, the  German army was unable to continue World War II by 1944.

Between the 1960s and early 1970s, the Americans tried to crush the leftists in  Vietnam. But the terrain, the guerrilla tactics and the determination of the........

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