As I’ve said before, I think the only real strategy which will work at this time is to identify the leaders, find them, and execute them by fair means or foul. And I would not make much of an effort to avoid collateral damage, and I would give no thought whatsoever to taking prisoners. Once the tribal leaders figure out that harboring such people brings down an awful wrath not just on the jihadis but on them as well they WILL stop harboring such people. The people in Waziristan and Afghanistan understand violence rather well, and have the deepest respect for people who are willing to employ it against folks who have pissed them off. Compassionate combat, taking care not to offend the sensibilities of the people who support and give comfort to our enemies, is not seen as a sign of moral goodness, its seen as weakness in the form of something akin to mental illness.

If a few of the villages in Waziristan that are hotbeds of the Taliban were to vanish due to a daisy-cutter being dropped in the middle of said villages, I think the war in Afghanistan would soon be over.