Non-judgemental non-pejorative non-lefty war story

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/6176805.stm

I swayed and my head felt light but I managed to stay in my chair. Yes, I was reading a war story on the BBC website, nay, even a story about a British and Indian army during the Empire, and it was in no way judgemental, pejorative or laden down with lefty pseudo-morality. There was a moral at the end, don't despise your enemy, but I don't think the British army ever dispised the Pushtun, Tajiks, Hazaras and Kashmiris. They didn't like the way they fought, its true, because they wouldn't come down out of the mountains to fight like men in proper European fashion. But as warriors, the NWFP tribes were rated as second to none, and many tribesmen were excellent shots.

Of course, the tribesmen eventually lost, because in those days the loss of even whole armies did not sway the British from going about their empire-building. The mountain tribes were persuaded by military means and by bribery to leave the revenue-generating lowlands alone (a very hard habit to break), and some were later taken into the ranks of the British Army as auxilliaries.

This vast frontier holds great interest in modern politics. Empires have collided here many times, whether it was the Shahi Hindus vs the Turkic Muslims, the Mughals vs the Iranian Safavids, or the British vs Russians. Now, militant Islam confronts the rest of the world on this frontier. The contest may not be decided here, but the issues are very clearly delineated in this particular theater. The NATO troops in Afghanistan are daily trying to stop the Pushtun from burning down the schools, hospitals and nascent businesses that would bring Afghanistan into at least the 20th century. Thats what this is about. On the one side, modernity and all the blessings it brings. On the other side, a 7th century mentality that likes its women bare-foot, pregnant and deathly-frightened; its men sitting like little gods atop a miniature theocracy, ignorant and full of braggadocio. The trouble for the Islamists is that there is so little in it for anybody but themselves. They are the ultimate spoilt brats. The trouble for them is, in the contest between the values of positivity, equality, progress and hope and the antitheses of those things; who would voluntarily opt for negativity, inequality, stagnation and hopelessness?