"The missile didn't just hit the right house; it scored a direct hit on the very room where Mustafa al-Misri ("Mustafa the Egyptian") and several other Qaeda operatives were holed up. The hit was so accurate, the subcommander says, it's as if someone had tossed a GPS device against the wall. Unfortunately for others at the scene, the mud-and-stone house collapsed, killing several Afghans along with the foreign fighters. Nevertheless, the subcommander told NEWSWEEK, "We are stunned" by such precision."

Now this could be a "Blind Hog Finds Acorn" event, the one pellet from a shotgun which hits a target or more DoD nonsense but it does have the ring of truth. That's how it should be done, and the other damage seems truly collateral. As opposed to the "collateral damage" from a 500# bomb on an apartment building. According to Woodward's latest book there is something new out there and this is how it behaves, though. Good job.

And even so the situation in the area is deteriorating.

9-30-2008 - "Insurgents in Afghanistan Are Gaining, Petraeus Says."

2-8-2009 - "Gen. David H. Petraeus, head of the U.S. Central Command, said the war in Afghanistan "has deteriorated markedly in the past two years" and warned of a "downward spiral of security."

Refusing to learn from history.

"Privately, Petraeus is said to reject comparisons with Vietnam; he distrusts "history by analogy" as an excuse not to come to grips with the intricacies of Afghanistan itself. But there is this stark similarity: in Afghanistan, as in Vietnam, we may now be facing a situation where we can win every battle and still not win the war—at least not within a time frame and at a cost that is acceptable to the American people."

Trying to force a war on 20th century, set-piece terms isn't going to work. And yet that's the fight Western armies can fight. Traditionally equipped to fight the last war, the conditions have slipped. Their equipment, tactics and training haven't been particularly relevant since the Korean War.

In modern times one must know the language, culture and history of these societies. The US would rather spend more on traditional arms. (Saw a PBS program not long ago. A patrol reached a small Afghan village. In the "hearts and minds" section the American officer explained that he hadn't been able to get the parts for the village generator yet, implying they weren't available, yet. And then added that the patrols kept getting shot up and couldn't get the parts there. It was obvious promises had been made, broken, probably repeatedly, and then the villagers blamed because the non-existent parts couldn't be transported safely. Obviously the whole story isn't available, but what the American said didn't seem to promote trust.)

Arf