Comment Re:Air power never wins wars (Score 1) 419
What I don't get is what the counterinsurgency campaign can offer ordinary civilians in Afghanistan. Why would they be suddenly welcomed with open arms. I would guess at best they would receive a sullen hostility. After all foreigners have been bombing the crap out of them for decades. Why would they give a crap what flag the current lot are under or what they're trying to do.
From an average Afghan's perspective, they have very little to gain from continuing this war or supporting the US. Certainly I don't think it would be obvious to them that they would be able to have a country run according to their wishes, assuming it would even be possible to gain any sort of consensus. In the end I think it's pretty obvious that the US is seen as being just as self serving and indifferent to the well being of Afghani civilians as Al-Quaeda or the Taliban. Each has their own sick agenda and the unfortunate civilians will continue to pay for the foreseeable future.
When elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers.