please explain the "makes winning impossible" part.
Taliban or sympathetic faction set up base of operations within Pakistan. They are free to organize missions, recruit and train, all with little or no fear of getting a LGB dropped on them while they sleep, or US Special Forces keeping an eye on them.
They move with impunity across into Afghanistan, to conduct attacks and ambushes. They retreat against any organized force.
Finally, we send Predators in and bomb them
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/08/AR2008090800263.html?hpid=topnewsThe Pakistanis claim we hit civilians, but they always claim BS like that. If they didn't want to collect some collateral damage, they shouldn't have been providing safe haven to Taliban all these years.
And, for all the French bashing that goes on here at O'Club - they have gotten hit in Afghanistan as well as the Canadians
http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2008/09/04/afghan-natynczyk.html?ref=rssThe Taliban are surging, this month was the deadliest in the war history. Senior commanders acknowledge the need for an alteration in strategy.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26642415/I would say the inability to bomb in Pakistan (up to this point) made winning in Afghanistan impossible. As long as the enemy has safe haven, they can regroup and retrain. Extermination is the only way. If the Pakistanis don't like civilian casualties, then they can get the army mobilized to help us, put those F-16s that we sold them to some good use. Otherwise they can shut up.
That's what I meant.