The Afghanistan Commando Olympics

Strategy Page:

The recent fighting in southern Afghanistan was reported in terms of American, British, Canadian and Dutch troops fighting the Taliban. But the most effective troops hardly got mentioned at all, and that's the way they like it. Among 20,000 or so American and NATO troops, there were nearly 2,000 commandos (about a third of them U.S. Special Forces). Afghanistan has been something of a commando Olympics for the past five years. During the last three months, the Taliban were subjected to a series of offensive operations, most of them using the commandos to get the drop on the Taliban, and then call in U.S., NATO or Afghan troops to finish off the enemy, after the commandos and smart bombs had done their work. In this way, about half the 4,000 deaths in Afghanistan this year, took place in those three months. During that period, 2,077 Taliban were killed. Some 40 percent of those Taliban losses occurred during Operation Medusa, which took place in September, in Kandahar province. This operation was meant to upset the Taliban plans to bring in thousands of gunmen, and take control of the area around Kandahar (the traditional Taliban "capital") and perhaps (if only temporarily) the city itself. The Taliban were outmaneuvered and outfought, especially by the international commando force.

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There is more. The Taliban lost about 10 fighters for every KIA they achieved against the combined Afghan and allied forces. They also alienated the population and reminded them why they did not like the Taliban to begin with. While they continue to posture about their success in burning schools and killing a few teachers, that is not a tactic that will get people to rally to their side.