Hey, let's just call them idiots...

[Chris jM]

A quick and simple answer to you is that the Taliban sit and watch the ISAF forces day after day and in their medieval minds they note weaknesses which they exploit. This while the ISAF forces arrive in Afghanistan with the attitude "This is how we do it". The prognosis for ISAF remains poor.

Still, my point remains. Neither side is 'stupid', and using such a label is both inaccurate and unproductive.

As to the prognosis of ISAF, that's another topic altogether and is one I'm unqualified and poorly placed to comment on.

[JMA]

Still, my point remains. Neither side is 'stupid', and using such a label is both inaccurate and unproductive.

As to the prognosis of ISAF, that's another topic altogether and is one I'm unqualified and poorly placed to comment on.

As I stated somewhere before to win a war all you have to be is slightly less incompetent than your enemy. Something has gone badly wrong with the conduct of the war in Afghanistan which extends beyond the narrow actions of ISAF. I accept that the boots on the ground try their best on a day to day, contact to contact basis. Evidence of incompetence (stupidity) is widespread and regrettably to be expected (we had enough of it in my little war back then).

Now put the boot on the other foot. Surely the Taliban are using the same propaganda angle? They will tell their recruits that ISAF aircraft bomb their own forces, they kill there own troops through shooting (friendly fire) accidents, they crash more vehicles than the Taliban shoot out ... etc etc

We used to differentiate between the "hard core" and the "cannon fodder". The bad news is that one never knows which you are going to contact on a given day... and to take the "hard core" lightly at your peril.