This is some really interesting stuff and in my opinion, should have happened a while ago. Not only are we possibly causing the Taliban to appear as criminals (which may or may not be good as Rex mentioned), but we are strengthening the enforcement of the law. Having guys trained take down gangs with the proper law enforcement techniques is better than sending in heavily armed guys that start a firefight for obvious reasons. Ideal results: Less "gangs" through action that doesn't completely disturb and annoy the population.

It would even be better if we could try to pass this law enforcement training to the Afghan National Police. Yes the ANP have alot of issues to work out, but we are mainly providing them with paramilitary training right now. If they learn how to do "proper" law enforcement (methods of handling evidence, undercover agents, CSI, etc), then in the long term, I think they would be more efficient and the situation would be better. An interesting article discussing this was published by FP a couple of weeks ago.

This is a good step, especially when thinking long term. We will see how it works out.

I will make sure to check out John Sullivan's work.