As a fighting force, European countries will prove a brittle cane on which to lean in operations abroad.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Center For Security Policy

Another reason for American caution is that the usefulness as a fighting force of the Northern Alliance's mixture of Tajiks, Uzbeks and others, though greater than many sceptics had believed two months ago, may now be drawing to an end.

ECONOMIST: America at last puts large numbers of men on the ground

Unorthodox from the start, the SAS was conceived as a commando force to operate behind enemy lines in North Africa, where the British were fighting Field Marshall Rommel's highly-skilled Afrika Korps.

BBC: The SAS secret hidden since World War II

The troops in Stung Treng are fighting a battle in this larger campaign, one where show is at least as important as force.

CNN: ASIANOW - TIME Asia

Ours is a professional, disciplined fighting force, and the assertion that a diverse military would lack order and discipline is, as Rep. Patrick Murphy, an Iraq War veteran, has said, "an insult" to him and the entire U.S. military.

CNN: Commentary: Allow gays to serve openly in military