It wasn't the Romans, it was Alexander and his successors.



"Capt. JG" wrote:
Besides encouraging the marrying of foreigners, he mostly just fought a lot,

Missing the point twice.

1- by marrying local royalty, he cemented his own claim to local
rulership

2- "a lot of fighting" is not really accurate, Alexander did the least
amount of fighting commensurate with achieving his goal of subjugating
the tribes. And they stayed subjugated because he recruited a large
percentage of fighting-age males, reducing the tribes military
strength. It also played into a strategy of dividing the tribes rather
than uniting them against foreign invasion.

A heck of a lot of politicians and generals could learn a lot from
Alexander.


although he did build some road/shipyard/etc. I believe the Romans actually
built the infrastructure.


I'm not familiar with Roman-built infrastructure in what is now
Afghanistan.

In any event, I agree that we have a strategic interest in Afghanistan
and Pakistan... in fact thru much of the undeveloped Muslim world. And
we should join with our natural allies, Muslim parents who want to see
their kids grow up rather than be recruited as suicide bombers.

DSK