.....as reported by the Washington Post and posted at Yahoo!. I hope these guys kick some butt and come out alive! I kind of get shivers thinking about what the operations must be like. They would have to go in under the cover of darkness....right? We don't want to see a repeat of Somalia when our choppers went down. Hopefully, the Taliban won't know what hit them and from where...then our guys get the hell out of there. Surf
Remember how in the Gulf War there actually was concern about Iraq's Republican Guard? They turned out to be a cakewalk. I think that this "army" will be even easier but the terrain will make it tough, tough, tough. And winter's coming, too.
Somalia sucked because the somali's used civilians as cover, and our guys were told not to shoot civilians. That won't be an issue until if and when we have to send forces into a city. I trust the opinion of the Russians special forces officers that say these Afghanis can fight. But times have changed since the Russians were there. Our forces have many more tools and weapons, and the taliban will not receive more weapons from anyone. I think the Apaches will reek havoc until the fight moves into the mountains. With winter coming on, the infra-red heat signatures should come in loud and clear.
The only problem would occur if the US attempted to occupy land in a traditional military fashion. Then the guerrila factor would come into play. Clearly, however, special forces are not for that kind of job. They are clearly not that kind of group. An occupying army provides a wealth of targets and sufficient planing time to be able to blend back with a sympathetic population. The special forces, however, operate more like the Afghans did vs the Russians. Choose your moment, hit hard, and dissapear.
I don't know how significant is question of modern sophisticated weapons here.. I think the more important issue here will be navigating the terrain in such a mountainous country like Afghanistant.. The Taliban aren't a regular army and traditional combat will not be the issue here and also, there are no targets to attack since the country has no military bases or even infrastructure, just (other than tents) caves and mountains where the Taliban know there way and the U.S. forces don't.. Let's hope for the best though.
