Also on the same note, tactically speaking the taliban are forced to operate under daunting conditions. Overhead hundreds of drones are operating, some armed with hellfire missiles and they can call in Spooky air raids and helicopters filled with special forces within minutes. Vietcong had access to Soviet AA guns and sometimes inflicted damage on the USAF, routinely forcing them to transport troops under heavy escort as the helicopters were being brought down in the hundreds. Taliban can't do this, by the time American forces land on the ground to face any kind of numerous opposition, the area has been leveled by above and artillery. The taliban can only dream of bringing down airplanes or helicopters these days, especially since countermeasures are very effective against rpg's. So the best they can do is lure in the ground forces. Here they have had one regrettable success...they adopted many tactics from Iraq such as the IED. Still casualties have been remarkably low for ISAF and heavy for taliban. New recruits are lured in by talks of Islam and dollar and kalashnikov, there aren't people like me there to tell them that these guys are a death cult and the reason why Allah's wrath is on them.
