Afstan: Major capture/Metrics

Two from BruceR. at Flit:

1) Taliban #2 in custody

Hmm... guess he was in Pakistan after all. Go figure.

I know we've all made jokes about the lifespan of the #3 guy in Al Qaeda, and there are obviously a couple targets who would be bigger in a moral victory sense, but in terms of actual impact on insurgent command and control on the ground in the south of Afghanistan, it's hard to think of a target who would be more significant. This is the supreme military leader of the insurgents who killed Canadians on my watch and previous. It's certainly nice to see him taken off the chessboard: I hope his is a long and barely tolerable captivity.

This is big...

Read on.

2) Kilcullen on metrics

Tom Ricks' series of posts by David Kilcullen on good counterinsurgency metrics are all worth a read, but the one on local security forces was particularly good, I thought. Others:

The enemy.
Local officials.
The population.
Stupid metrics.