Just read the article David, thanks for posting.
My response would be that the lessons of Northern Ireland were overlooked. The Catholic population there resented the trappings of occupation and the seeming imposition of martial law, which benefited the adversary Protestant population and its paramilitaries. The sight of armored cars and helicopters would infuriate Catholics and draw the attention of the PIRA which sought to attrite British forces. The British were successful when they used a special forces/intelligence combination. Instead of a visibly heavy presence, plainclothes military and police intelligence officers would spy on the PIRA, whose members would find themselves suddenly arrested or ambushed.
Returning to Afghanistan, it would have been better for Coalition forces to traverse mined areas in helicopters, to barrack themselves securely and counter Taliban subversion with a network of plainclothes intelligence officers and special forces operators, backed by conventional reinforcements if necessary. Moreover, the Pashtuns were marginalized to a degree, with other ethnic and sectarian groups comprising the majority or disproportionately large shares of the Afghan National Police and Afghan National Army.
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