I agree with quite a bit of Pragmatic Thinker's discussion. A fear that some have related to me is that many commanders on the ground still have a kinetic view on the ground, even though Cimic and Psyops has taken hold. Often a "cimic" or "psyops" aspect will be included, just because they think they need one, not because they are thinking in the terms of these ideas. That’s changing but its not an easy.

One of the interesting aspects of this discussion on proportionality came with the decision to deploy Leopard tanks last fall. It was found that Canadian troops did not have an adequate weapon between the chain gun on the LAVs and Artillery/Air strikes, which could take on hard mud walls of compounds. Quite often the 25mm would be woefully ineffective against these reinforced walls, and strikes caused far too much collateral damage. The main gun of the Leopard was seen to be a "proportional" weapon: it could accurately deliver the precise amount of damage as well as being available whenever the commander desired.

In all fairness, (and to echo Pragmatic Thinker's thoughts) I don't think the NATO/OEF has sufficient troops in the region. This was all but stated by British officers about their stretch in Helmand, and I think many others agree with that assessment as well. As a result the best we can hope for is the maintenance of the current situation, but we will not make concrete steps towards achieving peace. It might occur in "generations" as some Canadian officials assert, something we will have to be there for 10+ years, but in some way I think that’s a bit of a cop out. It seems to tell me that we have a long term plan in but we can't really give any benchmarks for success in the least. Its not that I'm suggest that counter-insurgency operations aren't almost always long term endevours; they are, particularly in a place as fractured as Afghanistan. However given the growing strength of the insurgency, its increasing infiltration into rural areas, seem to suggest in many critical categories we are moving in the opposite direction.

I believe that privately at least a few officers believe that we are just trying to hold till 2009, when Canada is likely pull out and (more importantly) the US might redeploy troops from Iraq to Afghanistan, so that we might have more appropriate force levels given the task we are facing.