That said, Afghani peoples have successfully fought off a lot of superior forces over the centuries. Most recently before the U.S., the Soviets.

Afghanistan is just not a great place for a military to root out a guerilla force. Those caves you’re talking about are a big reason. The people who know the land have used that knowledge to their advantage for millennia and it’s not something modern technology can really win against unless you’re talking dropping a nuke on them.