[fushigi]

Quote by: Gods_Mercenary A much more effective tactic, after the initial destruction of the offending regime, is like that being used in the horn of africa (only after the initial failure, mind you) Is to keep the military low key, with its main purpose to protect various bases. You then convince the inhabitants that there are more benefits than harm with your regime by building infrastructure (and advertising that it was you). This has shown some success in places like somalia, because it keeps the troops out of main visibility and therefore out of mind, while showing them benefits.

You're crazy if you think this would work. The only thing you'd accomplish by keeping the military cozy in their bases and then "building infrastructure (and advertising that it was you)" would be to create nice, soft targets for the Taliban to blow up. Won't go floating down the media stream, but I'm pretty sure anything non-Taliban in Afghanistan is open game, including the Red Cross and NGOs. Not sure giving the Taliban more soft targets while reducing the military presence would help win the hearts and minds of the Afghani people.