They say that those who ignore the lessons of history are doomed to repeat them. This week, after deciding to send another 30,000 troops to subdue Afghanistan, President Barack Obama accepted the Nobel Peace Prize.

Afghanistan is a black hole in central Asia that has devoured every empire that's ever tried to conquer or control it. It is not a nation; it is the dancing floor of tribal war. In all its long and gruesome history, more blood than rain has fallen on Afghan soil.

First there was Darius, who sought to make Afghanistan part of the Persian empire around 522 B.C. His armies were eaten alive. Next, in 329 B.C., there was Alexander the Great, whose Greeks could conquer Persia but could not subdue Afghanistan.

The Huns invaded in 400 A.D., but they stayed only long enough to lay waste to the land. The Persians tried again in 550 A.D. but were beaten back, once again.

Genghis Khan invaded in 1219, but like the Huns did not stay. After that came the Moghuls, who were driven out.

The Persians conquered Kandahar in 1738, a victory that lasted all of nine years. The Sikhs took Peshawar in 1834, but the Afghans soon destroyed them, too.

Next, in 1839, came the British. They propped up a puppet named Shah Shuja. He lasted just three years before he was assassinated and the British driven out.

Of the 3,600 British and Indian troops and the 12,000 civilians who were occupying Kabul, only 40 survived their retreat. A Dr. William Brydon, who rode into Jalalabad slumped on a limping horse, was said to be the only British soldier left alive.

The British tried twice more to take control of the country, with similarly disastrous dénouements.

More recently, the Russians invaded Afghanistan in December 1979. They withdrew on Feb. 15, 1989, after losing an estimated 40,000 to 50,000 troops.

Now Obama says he wants to do in 18 months what no one's been able to do in 2,600 years. But if there's any lesson to be drawn from the history of Afghanistan, it is this: to send troops there to make peace is to send them on a fool's errand.

If anyone should know this, it's the latest winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.

This is the opinion of Kenton Robinson.