War:

Grip, Stealth, Assimilation

If the predator is George Bush, and the prey the Taliban,

the same principles apply. Move your strengths into

the arena of the prey. Knock out the air defences

using Stealth bombers which enemy radar

cannot see. Then paralyse by knocking

out key communications centres.

Lastly, once air defences are

down, your conventional

bombers are not vulnerable

to attack, and the Taliban leadership

cannot move its forces around, use your

conventional bombers to destroy

their biggest concentrations

of ground forces.

Then the Taliban's local enemies can

overwhelm what is left, and you can provide

US ground forces to ensure it stays

that way.

That way your strengths - technology, targeting,

firepower - are used to the full, and your weakness - public

pressure on seeing lots of American casualties -

is least likely to be of service to

the enemy.

But of course, if you do not deal with the

fundamental long term reasons

the Taliban could recruit

lots of eager supporters...

the perceived injustices to the

world of Islam, then all

this will have been in vain, and

there will be other Talibans. One's

strength can be one's greatest

weakness, too...