On Feb 15, 8:12*pm, "Jonathan" wrote:
Troops: Strict war rules slow Afghan offensive
(AP) - 4 hours agohttp://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5ie7Ds68zL9eB_hd65DF...

This isn't going to be another Fallujah. But much more difficult I'm afraid.

The Taliban in this area have been in control of some half *the world's
poppy crop. So I bet they'll be very well-heeled with an endless
supply of ammo and mines of all kinds.

And this time the civilians aren't fleeing.

And because of that, the troops on the ground will be operating with very
restrictive rules, but even worse, we can't make much use of air power
or other stand-off guided weapons because of the large civilian numbers.

We have both hands tied behind our back.

But we must win, I believe this is a sort of Alamo for Islamic extremism.
As that region of Afghanistan is a primary source of cash for them.

God bless our troops! We are asking so much more from them, this time!
If America can't pull this off, no one can.
So we must win!

Jonathan

s

Agreed. In Fallujah the USMC basically said a few weeks before
everything kicked out "Dear civilians, please leave now because when
stuff goes down it is going large." Here they are tring to operate
with the civilians in place which makes things quite a bit trickier.

However, as you say, this is important to the Taliban so perhaps it
gives the chance to really draw them in and make it a battle on our
terms. Use resources, people etc. to draw them and cut them off, then
beat them up, with the goal of taking and holding routes in and out
and taking their resource from them.