Kabul (FA wire) - Nearly four years have passed, but Afghan frustration at the Iraqi insurgency shows no sign of abating. This week a gathering of Taliban fighters in the capital once again called for the Iraqis to “back down” and let Afghans “show you how empire-humiliating is done.”

At their meeting at the Kabul Sheraton, thinly veiled as a “Annual Convention for the Tally Ban” (”We are a small organization opposed to counting. Yes, that’s it - anti-counting” snickered one attendee to the delight of his friends), partisans pointed to Afghanistan’s rich history of frustrating invaders and occupiers.

“We repelled the British in the middle of the 19th century, and spent the next sixty years wearing them out,” said one headscarf-clad “counter-counter.” We spent the 1980’s bogging down the Russians. And we are more than capable of grinding the Americans to a standstill, but they won’t give us the chance.”

The keynote speaker, a “Mr. Benjamin Luden” from “Tally Ban Local 911″ (”Just call me Ben!”) was emphatic. “With more resources spent on us, we could frustrate a force of at least 10 times the current occupying presence. And yet those amateurs in Iraq get all the attention. That’s not an insurgency - it’s a bunch of disorganized squabblers!”

Throughout the capital, there is a growing sense that Afghanistan could have been the Bush administration’s Waterloo, if only they had given it a chance. “It’s a waste,” said one completely covered, possibly female T-shirt vendor. “We have the mountains, the devastating winters, the drug trade, and - of course - we’re the principle training-ground for Al Qaeda. We were ready…”

“It’s like losing the Olympics,” she said with a shake of her head. “Though granted, the stadiums get used for different purposes.” Her wares, neatly laid out, featured such slogans as “Come Back To Afghanistan - We’ve Got a Can of Whoopass For You” and “Afghanis Do It With a Vengeance” and “Mommy and Daddy Went to Kabul, and All I Got Was This Lousy T-shirt. And Their Bodies In a Bag!”

Still, there is some optimism on the streets that the Iraqi boondoggle is just a passing phase. “In three years, Iraq will either be run by a tyrant or partitioned,” said Mr. Luden during his keynote address. “And we’ll still be here, stirring shit up. And the United States will come to realize that if they want to throw lives and resources at an intractable military and political stalemate, there’s really only one choice. They’ll be back.”