Admittedly, I only finished the village about a week ago, but I think trying to implement a CAP program at this point would be difficult.

My impression from reading the book was that CAP seemed to be effective in controlling space but was not effective in "destroying the enemy". Its possible that displacing the Taliban from the population is all that necessary but I don't think so. With a drawdown in combat forces I think the potential for QRF support in either defense or larger offensive operations may be limited. That seemed to be an important factor in the village, re the airstrikes in the Phu Longs.

If we had enough motivated soldiers with the language and cultural skills I believe it could have had an effect, 7 years ago. In addition to the small tactical problems, in the Vietnam example, the was some semblance of a functioning government to support. Afghanistan seems like a situation where a lack of support or continuity from the center government might lead to a "well, what now?" situation.

- on a slightly different note, isn't the CAP program what ODAs are designed to do? Other than night raids, what have they been doing this whole time?

Respectfully, Wyatt