KHOJA BAHAWUDDIN (AFGHANISTAN), Oct 13 (Reuters): Shir Ali Grimaces when he considers what would happen if US ground troops were sent into Taliban-ruled Afghanistan, and then slowly shakes his head.
His experience training as a Mujahideen fighter, or holy warrior, with the opposition Northern Alliance in Northern Afghanistan taught him the strongest weapon in any war , never to fear death.
And the Taliban, who harbour Osama bin Laden , the prime suspect in suicide attacks on US landmarks last month , are not afraid, he says.
"If the Americans put land troops in, it will cost them dearly," said Ali, who was trained as a Mujahideen in Afghanistan by former Northern Alliance leader Ahmad Shah Masood.
"I know the Mujahideen , know the Taliban.
They, in Afghanistan, have spirit.
A fighter can stand there, facing the enemy with no fear.
He then says Allah Akhbar (God is Great) and is ready to die," he said.
"The Americans fear death.
This is the vital difference." He recalls what happened when soviet troops tried to invade Afghanistan.
After ten years, the Soviet Unions crack troops were pulled out after thousands of losses.
"One fighter can hold up a whole regiment of American troops.
They did the same to the Russians," he said, laughing when asked what he was taught under Masood, who was fatally wounded in a suicide assassination just two days before the hijacked planes were flown on their suicide missions into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11.
The strikes have prompted speculation that US,led troops might be sent to step up pressure on the Taliban.
Ali, born in neighbouring Tajikistan, says many US troops would die , something the public at home could not stomach.
"They will do it again.The Americans might have loads of good weapons, but the Taliban has a powerful spirit," said Ali, who fought against government troops in Tajikistan during a recent civil war.
Tajikistan, a former Soviet Republic in central Asia that shares a border with Afghanistan, was racked by civil war in the mid-1990s and still fears the Muslim-led opposition and splinter groups.
"When I realised I was a Muslim, after the Soviet union tried to wash it out of me, I knew I had to fight for my freedom.
And I would die for it," Ali said.
"People in the west do not understand death, or what is worth dying for."