Quote Originally Posted by Rank amateur View Post
I've been meaning to discuss this exact issue in a thread about Afghan geography and COIN, but I don't see this working in Afghanistan. Too many miles of road, too few villages, too many bad guys coming across the border. Even if you get the locals onside, they won't know where the IEDs are and who is placing them.

Seems to me "imprisoning" the population is the key to all successful COIN. Take away everyone's freedom and the insurgents lose freedom of movement. But fence in the entire population of Astan, and I still think you'll have lots of bad guys running around the mountains.
Good points. That's one thing that I've wondered about A'stan. How do you secure the populace and conduct COIN when the terrain (both human and geographic) is extremely harsh? I'm having lunch with a buddy of mine next week. His SF team owned Helmund Province in and out for two years. We continue to discuss the tactics of it we no clear-cut solutions.

v/r

Mike