Albeit we are moving away from the original theme onto the impact of terrain and in particular cover for insurgents.

I recall a clip on the BBC or C4 about fighting in Sangin, where the emphasis was on the local passion for building walls around patches of land, hundreds of metres long and about 12' high. The UK Army were using demolition charges and an adapted bulldozer to reduce lengths of them. Mention was made of snipers using "murder holes".

Earlier a post referred to the bocage of Normandy. From this "armchair" it appeared then, possibly a year ago, that the local tactical solution was very limited - as UK capabilities / resources were - and simply telling the Afghans to stop building walls - by the Afghan government - was not used.