Changes

==U.S. Army==

==U.S. Army==

In late 2003, the Joint Chiefs designated Lt. Gen. David W. Barno as the new commander of American forces in Afghanistan, He adopted a counterinsurgency strategy, requiring coalition forces to work closely with Afghan leaders to stabilize entire regions, rather than simply attacking insurgent cells. Because the Pentagon insisted on maintaining a "small footprint" in Afghanistan and because Iraq was a higher priority conflict, Barno was given only 20,000 troops.  As a result, [[battalion]]s with 800 soldiers were trying to secure provinces the size of [[Vermont]]. Coalition forces were thinly spread across the mountainous land, leaving much of Afghanistan vulnerable to enemy force increasingly willing to reassert their power.  On the positive side, the pairing of small [[U.S. Special Operations forces|Special Operations Forces]] teams with Afghan militias, which, backed by laser-guided weapons, drove the Taliban from power.

In late 2003, the Joint Chiefs designated Lt. Gen. David W. Barno as the new commander of American forces in Afghanistan, He adopted a counterinsurgency strategy, requiring coalition forces to work closely with Afghan leaders to stabilize entire regions, rather than simply attacking insurgent cells. Because the Pentagon insisted on maintaining a "small footprint" in Afghanistan and because [[Operation Iraqi Freedom|Iraq]] was a higher priority conflict, Barno was given only 20,000 troops.  As a result, [[battalion]]s with 800 soldiers were trying to secure provinces the size of [[Vermont]]. Coalition forces were thinly spread across the mountainous land, leaving much of Afghanistan vulnerable to enemy force increasingly willing to reassert their power.  On the positive side, the pairing of small [[U.S. Special Operations forces|Special Operations Forces]] teams with Afghan militias, which, backed by laser-guided weapons, drove the Taliban from power.

==Insurgency==

==Insurgency==