One of the major problems that occupying forces have had in Afghanistan is that modern military strategy fundamentally isn't designed for taking and holding ground. Outside of the bases in Afghanistan, there is not one square meter of ground that is "owned" by the coalition.
That is almost 100% false. For example, read the on-the-ground account in Junger's book War (and the related documentary Resprepo).
The whole aim of the Restrepo outpost was to control entry to the Korengal Valley, and take and hold control of the ground.
It kind of worked for a short period of time, but ultimately failed.
Nevertheless, the strategy was to gain control of the ground, then hand control over to local Afghan forces. There were some fairly significant failures in implementing that strategy though - not least that the government put in place to replace the Taliban was notably worse in many respects for the local population.
I see what you're saying, but I'd argue that it wasn't a strategy for near on a decade until the top brass had to start facing the hard reality of the complete bankruptcy and failure of the original strategy. Perhaps the pendulum is swinging the other way?
Destroying things is what armies are good at. They pretty effectively destroyed the Taliban early on. But, then, I think, it came home to roost that you can't just destroy something and then leave and expect everything to be fine if there was never anything to take the place of the thing you destroyed. We've been trying to solve that puzzle ever since.
That is almost 100% false. For example, read the on-the-ground account in Junger's book War (and the related documentary Resprepo).
The whole aim of the Restrepo outpost was to control entry to the Korengal Valley, and take and hold control of the ground.
It kind of worked for a short period of time, but ultimately failed.
Nevertheless, the strategy was to gain control of the ground, then hand control over to local Afghan forces. There were some fairly significant failures in implementing that strategy though - not least that the government put in place to replace the Taliban was notably worse in many respects for the local population.