I'll be the first to critique myself with some technical notes: The show has a few weird skips in it. These I'll attribute to Skype and will have to figure out how to edit better. Also, it seems my voice is a bit louder than Bill's . . . too loud perhaps? Things to work on for the next interview.

As far as the subject matter, I should have asked Bill to describe the degree to which NATO is relearning how to fight in Afghanistan. A lot of those countries are really contributing to the war for the first time -- or for the first time in a really significant way . . .

Chester,

I really liked the interview. Yes, you did sound louder than Bill, but my kids say I sound louder than them.

In the future as you have upcoming guest let us know and we can write in questions in advance. I would like to ask Bill what type of fighting unit and equipment seems to be working the best. Say compare a Marine infantry unit to an Army Stryker unit to an 101st Airborne unit.

Thanks

TAoC,
my question(s):
after mushroom, then who?
your discussions with Bill were framed in the two(2) year out period.
to be specific, we can incur in the tribal areas of paky now, or we can wait until a wackjob takes over after mushroom and then what?
paky will still be a nuke state.
as Bill stated, he believes the next big strike will come from this region.
as a historical reference, some could have argued that bombing PH did not make us sufficiently mad, therefore, there is no point in taking Okinawa.
as the WTC did not make us sufficiently mad.....
maybe we should just wait and see if "they" do something to "make us mad"......again.......or maybe "they" do something "to really make us mad".
somewhere in there is a question about our not taking action in the tribal regions referenced and these a**holes playing the nation state game. i just don't know how to frame it.

Wild Bill,

I'll do my best to answer that right here.

First, let me talk about my experience: I haven't been with Army units all that much. My only time was with a National Guard unit and an Engineer unit in Ramadi, but it was only for a few days.

In Iraq, I was with Marines. In Afghanistan it was the Canadians of the 1 PPCLI, which were configured just like the Marine units I was with, except they used G-wagons instead of Hummers. Both used LAVs, units were cross trained on multiple weapons systems, same attitude, etc. In fact, the Canadians of the 1 PPLC reminded me so much of Marines that I had to do a double take. If it wasn't for the Canadian flag on the shoulder, the eh and 'out', I might have been fooled.

I'm told the Strykers have performed very, very well. Their vehicles are LAV derivatives. In my opinion, once you go into this counterinsurgency mode of warfare, the medium-light configuration of the Marines/Canadian PPLCI/Strykers is a good fit. The LAV/Strykers pack a good enough punch to deal with most threats (the Canadian version had a 25mm cannon, you don't see the Taliban rolling out with armor.) I know the Army is creating several more Stryker brigades. This seems like a good idea to me.

Hope that helps.

Is there a way to make the mountian passes in eastern Afghanistan radioactive enough that the Taliban crossing back and forth would get radiation poisoning and die, leaving those in Afganistan for the NATO forces to destroy? That's without using real nukes.

JimboNC:

I believe there may be something which can be used for tracking, as opposed to killing.

Imagine salting the ground in an area with something which will adhere to clothing and can be used to track the wearer.