A possible addition to the discussion would be Peter Hopkirk's "The Great Game - The Struggle for Empire in Central Asia". It is the story of a small military force controlling a sub continent with northern extensions. It can be said that the English having practiced on the tribal peoples of Scotland, Ireland and Wales decided to turn to the sub continent of India.

From Hopkirk's "Prologue"

"If this narrative tells us nothing else, it at least shows that not much has changed in the last hundred years. The storming of embassies by frenzied mobs, the murder of diplomats and the dispatch of warships to the Persian Gulf..."

"Had the Russians in December 1979 remembered Britain's unhappy experiences in Afghanistan in 1842... then they may not have fallen into the same terrible trap.."

"The Afghans, Moscow found too late, were an unbeatable foe. Not only had they lost none of their formidable fighting ability, especially in terrain of their own choosing, but they were quick to embrace the latest techniques of warfare..." "...their modern counterparts the heat-seeking Stinger, which proved so lethal againist Russian helicopter-gunships"