I've never been to Afghanistan, but I feel like I've been there.

Ever since the 9/11 terrorist attacks and the subsequent news that Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida organization was headquartered near the Afghan-Pakistan border, I have been curious about what sort of country this is.

Any number of tour guides/authors have shown me the lay of the land.

Steve Coll first took me there in his Pulitzer Prize-winning book, "Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001." That was followed by Lawrence Wright's "The Looming Tower," which charts Islam extremism's circuitous route to the Afghan mountains and also won a Pulitzer.

Navy SEAL Marcus Luttrell took me to the 24,000-foot Hindu Kush peaks in "Lone Survivor," one of the most riveting war books I've ever read.

Khaled Hosseini guided me through the exotic streets of Kabul in "The Kite Runner," a barely disguised work of fiction.

New York Times reporter Dexter Filkins, yet another Pulitzer Prize winner, transported me to the front lines of Operation Enduring Freedom in "The Forever War." And mountain climber-turned-humanitarian Greg Mortenson introduced me to the rural Afghani/Pakistani culture in his best-seller "Three Cups of Tea," a tale about one man's crusade to build schools and dictate curriculum (with trademark American arrogance) to another culture.

Most recently, I picked up "Confessions of a Mullah Warrior" by Masood Farivar, an Afghan who fought as a mujahedeen (holy warrior) against the Soviets in the 1980s, then came to America and got a degree at Harvard.

All these books, written from their disparate angles and agendas, convey a common theme: Modern Afghanistan is a quagmire of tribal politics, religious fervor and ethnic diversity stirred up by mistrust, rebelliousness and foreign meddling, all of it situated on unyielding terrain, much of it mined.

The short but gruesome history of modern Afghanistan is not for the squeamish of heart. Conflict is this country's middle name. Enter at your own risk. Speak softly but carry a big RPG (rocket-propelled grenade).

Which brings us to the current question facing the Obama White House: Should 40,000 more U.S. troops be sent in an effort to prop up democracy in Afghanistan, keep the peace and get shot at?

I'm no foreign policy adviser, but if I could advise a foreign policy adviser, this is what I would tell him, or her:

You might want to read those books.

The portrait they collectively paint is clear: Afghanistan's mess is Afghanistan's mess and the Afghans would prefer to keep it that way.