Historically, the Pushtun tribes, secure within their mountain bastions centered on the Suleiman range and the Safed Koh, have successfully resisted all attempts to subdue them by Greeks, Persians, Kushans, Mongols, Mughals, Sikhs, British, and other Afghans. Most conquerors of the subcontinent were content to bypass these tribes, wherever necessary paying transit tribute and submitting to their raids and lootings. Only Britain, with its inbred sense of the need to impose law and ...