U.S. Army Pfc. Eric Guzman provides security alongside Afghan Border Police officers while patrolling a village in Afghanistan's Khowst province, Jan. 18, 2012. Guzman is assigned to the 25th Infantry Division's Company C, Team Hatchet, 1st Battalion, 501st Infantry Regiment, 4th Airborne Brigade Combat Team. U.S. and Afghan National Security Forces worked together to surprise and corner insurgents with air assault missions in the villages near the Pakistani border. U.S. Army photo by Spc. Phillip McTaggart
Afghan Village Fight Illustrates More Lethal COIN Strategy -- David Axe, Aol Defense
MARZAK, Afghanistan -- In the middle of the night on July 23, U.S. Special Forces infiltrated a bowl-shaped valley in Paktika Province in remote eastern Afghanistan. Their target: a major Taliban encampment just outside this, which hadn't had a government presence in decades. Taliban fighters had been using Marzak as a rest stop on the long road between Pakistan and Afghanistan's major cities.
What followed was "one of the biggest fights of the year" in Afghanistan, according to U.S. Army Lt. Col. Curtis Taylor, commander of forces in western Paktika. When the sun rose on July 24, around 100 insurgents lay dead. One American had died.
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My Comment: With a lack of boots on the ground, I have trouble seeing how this new strategy can work .... especially since more U.S. troops are slated to withdraw this year and next.
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