| And other home area’s in which the Taliban / Al Qaeda (TAQ) operate with impunity. The reason I raise this question is because of the recent attacks in Lahore, Rawalpindi, Peshawar and of course all of Eastern and South Eastern Afghanistan. I feel there is a need to pin the ears back of the TAQ in both Afghanistan and Pakistan to some degree. Force them to guard their home ice if you will and deploy, something the predator campaign alone can’t do. If the TAQ have to dedicate some effort to guarding their own sources of revenue, support and supplies, this will make these areas more obvious to reconnaissance and consequently more vulnerable to drone attack. It will also deny an area that TAQ can use to plan their terrorist attacks in peace and therefore limit the number and scope of these attacks and therefore limit the terrorist war the TAQ are wagging against both Afghanistan and Pakistan. This should also assist the Government of Pakistan in the task of eventually reestablishing government control of these areas and /or treat them in a manner which they prefer in accordance with their own national will. To the greatest degree practical we should limit these attacks to the TAQ and their allied agents infrastructure in these areas. We don‘t want to kick the Hornets’ nest but on the other hand we can’t let people think that waging war on us is costless. This would give these local entities more incentive to moderate their support and put the lie to TAQ invincibility in their home regions. Ideally this should be a cooperative campaign with Pakistan, Afghanistan, NATO, and American forces.
As a cautionary tale during the first Indo-China war the French had some limited success with just such a campaign in an area north west of Hanoi I believe called the Viet Bac. Unfortunately for the French they over drew form these lessons and substituted popular local forces for Legionnaires and Paratroopers and put them in a place called Den Bien Fu. Let us analyze thoroughly and proceed with caution.
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