@nForce..... ur last para is bull crap... do u want us to BOMB populated areas? and jets cant do jack ... can they support troop movement and actions at high speed? by the time a jet reaches talis scatter and hide in caves in places and thus no effect frm jets... we need Combat helis to support our troops ,MINIMIZE THE life losses which we could have achieved earlier,,,, and engage these bastards.
Also note the recent ops was the biggest after vietnam, in which helis were extensively used to transport troops and other roles.
Sir, I agree that gunships in this case have a better use. The whole point of a problem to exist is that situation might not always be conducive to your convenience and therefore adaptation is the best in such a way that increases efficiency as much as possible. Now I take it that most of the Taliban are familiar with the terrain and therefore scatter soon into the caves as you say. But what I fail to understand is that a gunship is slower that a fighter in specifically this case and a fighter can conduct bomb runs in the blink of an eye.
Now as Kakgeta pointed out that you are not equipped with drones to instantly shoot the taliban down. The best way then is to maintain fighters on standby while the UAVs spot Taliban's location and once that is done, clear the armed fighter to take them out.
You see, there are very less options you have in this case. I know that some people live there and that they are susceptible to getting bombed, but there isn't any room exactly to maneuver here. Either your military sends agents in disguise to mark the houses that are of innocent civilians and unofficially evacuates them at the dead of night and immediately orders a strike, or you simple have to keep a stone on your heart and carpet bomb the whole region.
I know the latter sounds inhumane and
I would never recommend it, but either way the loss of lives is not stemming at all be it men in uniform or men in casuals. Your military has been losing soldiers at such an alarming rate while Taliban seems to be like the heads of Hydra--you kill one, another two emerge. In such a case and a country with limited resources you have to take brutal actions that might otherwise be considered too violent or uncivilized.
United States and ISAF are also strung
with their hands full in Afghanistan. They are as much in trouble as you are and the only difference is that they have a lot of money and firepower as compared to you. There's no point in demanding something the Americans won't give you. For example, in one another thread I read Pakistani members mentioning that how the funds that were supposed to be used against Soviets were put into your indigenous nuclear programme which was further highlighted with some good sources by a fellow countryman of yours.
If at all this has happened and the intelligence communities of both United States and yours know it, do you think that the Americans will make the same mistake twice? I doubt they would again even consider handing you critical technologies.
A more approachable solution for both you and the Americans would be on-field information sharing and combat coordination. Let the American drones and fighters operate in tandem arrangement of your own UAVs so that both get a real-time data on whether innocents were killed or Taliban were. This way, your citizens won't be needlessly incited by extremist preachers of fake killings and at the same time your country would be assured of getting rid of the militants.
Adversaries will always make your life difficult; it is upto you as to how you can reduce casualties and maximize gains through any form that is available at hand. When doors are closed, you have to consider something else and adapt fast.