"It does seem like America studied what we did wrong," said Talat Muradov, a former Soviet intelligence captain and president of Uzbekistan's largest veterans' group, recalling the winding columns of Soviet convoys, slow and impotent targets in mountain terrain, that were ambushed by bands of mujahedeen.
The GFRP wires were tensioned with small force during winding each column.
The idea was to exploit North America's great wind column, which stretches through the heart of the land from Texas through Canada.
Picking our way along the route, we started to get a taste of the coastline's stunning topographical diversity: beaches alternating with rocky inlets, gnarled trees twisting away from the salty wind, columns of water erupting from blowholes at the base of dramatic cliffs.
By the bigger-than-big standards of houses in the suburbs of Washington, the Banners are not living all that large, although their house does have six bedrooms, nine bathrooms, two home offices, a wine cellar, a media room and four 21-foot-high "Gone With the Wind" columns on the veranda.
Flowers are integrated into the architecture, with swags festooning a balustrade, garlands wound around columns.
Mr Puri wound up his column with a little rhyme: "China moves events; India moves files.
A dense chain of pentagons, hexagons and diamonds wound round the column.
A dense chain of pentagons, hexagons and diamonds, formed from pale slender bricks, wound around the column.
As the Tuesday protest wound down, a column of several hundred people broke off and began marching down a major thoroughfare.
