Well, we're stuck in yet another [b]air war[/b] but unlike the last one, against a European nation that actually had something to lose, the Taliban will not capitulate to such pressure.  The word is that we're going after Taliban air defenses, military concentrations and terrorist sites.  Cool but kind of like killing a swarm of locusts with an 8-pound sledge.

The US is still respected to a degree because of our unprecedented victory in Desert Storm.  We have to regain this mantle of invulnerability if we want to really begin swinging things in Afghanistan.  Now I'm sure there are a whole slew of Spec Ops recon teams stuck in OPs as close to Osama's back yard as we dare.  There's probably an MEB floating off of Pakistan, too, to help effect an assault on el Queda or secure the Paki's nukes if the civil situation suddenly erupts.  But the Afghanis just aren't going to respect our position and start rethinking theirs until we start kicking their ass in person.

To this end I propose we immediately begin a strategy I dub Operation Black Magic.  Night air assaults by company-sized units of Rangers reenforced with a platoon of Delta troopers penetrate straight into the heart of Kabul, Kandahar and other Taliban strongholds.  Normally this would be suicide, like Mogadishu all over again.  But with air supremacy, in particular a constellation of AC-130 Specter gunships and A-10 Warthogs circling overhead, the whole equation changes.  Given a permissive ROE and not over-ambitious operational goals such a force could roam at will through the night-darkened streets of Taliban-held cities.  Any, and I mean [b]ANY[/b] resistance would be met with overwhelming force from either the crack NVG-equipped troops and/or their air support above.  Then in a puff of dust at the LZ, long before sunrise, they're gone.

Such brazen assaults would result in gaining a huge psychological advantage over the Taliban (assuming of course that Mr. Murphy not be too much against us).  The balance of fear would swing over to our side.  Such operations could also yield a large deal of intel if the proper targets were chosen.  They wouldn't be bloodless but we'd give far better than we'd take.  Such action could even benefit other ground fighting later on as Afghanis surrender Iraqi-style rather than face such [i]magic[/i].

I know it's a bit technothriller-ish but hell this war is going to be fought on the ground in one way or another and in the not-too-far future.  We should start making [i]them[/i] quake in their boots a little, make the shadows threatening and not a refuge.  It seems worth the risk right now when we're running scared of 'white powders' in the mail to put something just as frightening in the Taliban's back yard. [;D]