What should the US do currently with their policies in Afghanistan and Iraq?

Answer 1

Utilize the right tool for the job; then follow these three simple rules:

1. Study the enemy.

2. Conduct a reconnassance (intelligence gathering).

3. Equipment one's self for the mission.

Law enforcement (the police) found out a long time ago, that when patrolling the streets in a marked police car and wearing nice pretty uniforms; the bad guys just ducked (hid), waited for the cops to depart...then resurfaced again to continue their bad deeds.

Then law enforcement decided to "fight fire with fire." They'd go under-cover ("plainclothes" it was called/then in the 1960's it was called "going dirty"). Once officers went under-cover, they began to take the "big boys" down. These tactics were the "right tools for the job."

Just driving around town in a police car (HUMVEE) wearing all that armor (Kevlar helmets, bulletproof vest, night vision goggles, super dooper weapons that shoot around corners, etc...) only gets the bad guys who are either:

1. Unlucky to get caught in the open

2. Decoys (which of course leads to ambushes)

3. Or just plain suicidal.

After Vietnam came all these fancy .50 caliber sniper rifles, sniper schools, sniper movies, sniper patches, sniper hats, and sniper books; accompanying them were Green Berets this and SEAL's that...along with them were the Delta Force commandoes...and the Rangers, and the LRRPS (Long Range Reconnaissance Patrols) and the ARPs (Aerial Rifle Platoons). These are the right tools for the jobs at hand in Iraq and Afghanistan. All those fancy weapons and units can now do some "fancy work" and eliminate those terrorists and insurgents anywhere...anytime!

If you wanna kill a tiger; you have to hunt like one!