Afghanistan: the graveyard of empires

A great power can usually defeat it in the conventional military sense and take the cities, but no one can rule it long term. And many have tried. In that sense, Afghanistan is possibly the greatest blow to American exceptionalism ever.

The Chinese could probably do it using the totalitarian tactics they're using on the Uighers, including gradual replacement of the population with ethnic Han Chinese. But...yuck, hopefully that'll never happen.