As I understand it, the NATO commander, an american, sets the objectives – and the partners try to achieve those in their own particular area of operations, which differ widely in terrain and ACM activity.

Jonathon Brostrom’s death reminds me of Kipling’s poem “Arithmetic on the Frontier” See http://www.readbookonline.net/readOnLine/2739/ written at the time of the 2nd Afghan War. For those who don’t look it up, an extract:
“A scrimmage in a Border Station–
A canter down some dark defile–
Two thousand pounds of education
Drops to a ten-rupee jezail*–
The Crammer’s** boast, the Squadron’s pride,
Shot down like a rabbit in a ride!

No proposition Euclid wrote,
No formulae the text-books know,
Will turn the bullet from your coat,
Or ward the tulwar’s downward blow
Strike hard who cares–shoot straight who can–
The odds are on the cheaper man.”

* a jezail is a locally made musket carried by all tribesmen in the 1800s – until they could get their hands on a military rifle.
** Crammer, a tutoring institution specialising in getting potential young officers into Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst – the Brit’s “Westpoint”.

We can’t second guess the 2/503rd commander, but I suspect he was told to pull out of Wanak, which I consider a mistake. We have to drain the pond in which the insurgent fish swim… Time to remove the inhabitants, C4 the village and put in a company sized post with its own fire support, and saturate the area with patrols. In my experience, you have to call their bluff – otherwise they do not respect you. Measured enforcement is the issue; tribesmen love talk fests, but they have their own honor about keeping agreements, which are not necessarily the same as yours.

And the odds ARE on the cheaper man, viz. AK-47, RPG, with some captured russian HMG and mortars in support.