Kandahar is a city of some 700,000 that is supposedly a center of the Taliban. The US strategy is to form a security zone around the city, to cut off inflow and outflow of the Taliban.
This action may have been a good idea in the middle ages when a castle or walled city was put under siege. But in the context of the modern world and the current type of warfare, the security zone is doomed to futility. First, in the terrain of Afghanistan, the 'allies' cannot hope to seal off the city.
Second, all 700,000 inhabitants can't be Taliban. Thus, it is inevitable that lots and lots of innocent people are going to be antagonized by the inconvenience of check points, and especially check points by foreigners.
Third, the surrounding tactic has been tried many times since World War II, all without success. The first attempt was in Algeria, where the French tried fruitlessly to isolate the Casbah. It didn't work and the French soon went home.
But, this is the type of strategy that the Israelis advocate and carry out against the Palestinians. And therefore, given the present mind-frame in Washington, the American war-planners think the strategy has to be a good one.
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