General McChrystal does not get his ‘40,000 new troops in order to hold the “major” cities and secure the population from the Taliban.’ He only gets a part of it. Obama did very recently order for additional troops to Afghanistan, but only about 75 percent of McChrystal’s request.

McChrystal’s plan, though, is by no means crystal clear. Even by its own standards, the plan is deeply flawed. The military’s Counterinsurgency Field Manual recommends a ratio of 20 soldiers for every 1,000 residents. Since Afghanistan has a population of slightly over 32 million, that would require a force of 660,000 soldiers.’

Even if the US will soon have a contingent of ‘68,000 troops in Afghanistan, plus a stealth surge of 13,000 support troops,’ and even add to that McChrystal’s request for 40,000 additional troops, bringing the total to 121,000 plus NATO’s 35,000 troops, and the ultimate plan to expand the Afghan army to 240,000 going 340,000, the counterinsurgency plan is still 150,000 soldiers short.

But in spite of the superpower United States’ handling the war on the Taliban with ground troops in coalition forces, drone attacks, and sophisticated battle hardware, the Taliban remain uncrushed.

The Taliban are a fluid, irregular force, not an infantry company dug into a set position. Their supply lines are not highways and rail intersections, but goat trails. Their battlefield, mountains and forests in rugged terrain, are also their home where they move freely and efficiently.

The US, in spite of its power and might, has not crushed the Taliban who do not have sophisticated firepower and warfare equipment like the Americans do.

But what the US is fighting the Taliban with is what the Taliban knows best how to do: irregular warfare upon a terrain that necessitates guerilla style of fighting. This is what the American troops and the coalition forces lack in knowledge and practice. It is also the reason why even tens of thousand of troop surge will likely fail. The guerilla strategy is simple: ‘the locals tip off the guerrillas that the army is coming, the Taliban set up an ambush, fight until the heavy firepower comes in, then slip away.’

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Via Foreign Policy in Focus