Hit and Run

So, thousands of Taliban broke out of jail in Afghanistan and vanished - check. Then they captured a bunch of villages in the South around their movement's birthplace of Kandahar - check. Then NATO forces rush in for a traditional infantry battle and the Taliban melts away.

Afghan Defense Ministry spokesman Gen. Mohammad Zahir Azimi told journalists that the army had regained control of 10 villages that had been overrun by the Taliban after hundreds of militants escaped in a prison break at the main Kandahar jail last week.

Azimi said the fleeing Taliban had seeded the area with land mines at a time when villagers were about to begin harvesting their crops. Thousands of refugees had fled the district earlier this week as fighting loomed.

Azimi said 56 members of the Taliban had died in the coalition offensive. The governor of Kandahar province, Asadullah Khalid, put the figure of killed and wounded insurgents in the hundreds. NATO did not confirm either of those estimates.

"We don't have a definitive assessment, though casualties were inflicted," NATO spokesman Mark Laity said.

Taliban commanders acknowledged only six fighters were killed.

I think NATO needs a different strategy. The result of any frontal assault is going to be the Taliban melting away - they, like most of Southern Afghanistan, are Pashto, and indistinguishable from the general population. They'll continue to run guerrilla operations and as long as they have support from the population it can go on for decades. It's hard to know what exactly to do in Afghanistan, but running soldiers around to fight battles isn't going to work. I think we may need more troops in there, and buy-in from the locals, but there doesn't seem to be much of an objective outside of "don't let Karzai get killed".

Man, will the next President have a mess to clean up.