Afghan War Strategies Question...?

Question

My Dad has the following question about the Afghan war:

The Taliban use hit and run terrorist attack strategies including but not limited to road side bombs. (IED's) Also recently they have been going after relief workers in the region. He says this is meant to bring out psychological intimidation. Now his question is, why don't the forces adopt a similar guerrilla tactic strategy, such as positioning two-man sniper teams to pick off the insurgents as they come through the mountain passes from Pakistan.

What are your opinions? I'll relay any answers to my Dad.

Answer 1

Jake z

So why dont we all put on red coats and march into battle with a bagpiper in front of us?

And the taliban intelligence service has an easy time because they just log onto yahoo questions to find out the USA tactics.

Answer 2

1) Geneva Convention - if they were to accidentally kill a civilian coming down a mountain pass, the U.S. would never hear the end of it.

2) It's a fairly large mountain range, and the countries that have snipers couldn't cover the entire mountain range. Most sniper teams actually work with a team of other special forces soldier's.

3) The Taliban would have a much greater field advantage than the snipers.

Answer 3

The only problem with that strategy is that once the media get the information that the US army is using that type of guerilla tatic to hunt down possible terrorist, there will be outcry because some people will say that we are nothing better than the terrorist by using those methods to hunt them down.  

Answer 4

Killing terrorist that come in from Pakistan is something we do, but it doesn't solve everything.

Generally, we do lethal and non-lethal targeting on all known terrorist/insurgents and their associates.  It is not necessarily the best course of action to kill all of them as we can gain valuable information from either interrogation or observation.  

Insurgency is fueled by instability and support of the population (by support I mean that some people may directly support them, but in most cases its just fear to turn them in).  As a result, the US also needs to win over the majority of the population.  Doing so will strip the insurgency of the ability to hide (both themselves and their supplies) and recruit within the population.  They will also lose their intelligence network (aka the population--human observation).

It is a very complex situation that isn't just about killing/capturing all the insurgents.  It also involves things like cutting off their supplies, winning over the population, and creating stability.

Answer 5

Tell you dad to rev up the computer and download "Freedom Watch Afghanistan", a 5 minute daily TV podcast produced by Armed Forces News. You can get the link by clicking "news releases", then "Podcasts" from the below source. They just did a segment yesterday about blocking access through the Khyber Pass.  

Answer 6

They do have sniper teams. The Canadians are big on this and kill many from their mountain sites. The reason the Taliban uses hit and run tactics is because they can't go against American fire-power. They kill using snipers and boby traps the same as in Vietnam. The boby traps have changed but still used. It's also the Taliban's best way of psychological warfare. Keeps U.S. troops on high anxiety alert 24/7, 365. The toll is alarming. Read the stats