i watched "Dirty Dozen" yesterday, lets take all the prisoners in the US, about a million, arm them up & parachute them into these hostile parts of "The Stan", & let them do the job, if they survive halve their sentences.This will put enough troops on the ground to solve the problem. i will call "W"

Mike M, Barcelona, Espana

Rob, Virginia - you have missed the point of the article. If you want vitriolic news reporting stick to your third rate news agencies like Fox rather than posting cretinous comments on serious news articles written for a calibre of paper that you simply do not have in the states (NY Times excepted).

arthur, London,

For Brian, of Syracuse.
Very well trained they may be. But they still can't hit a barn door holding it by the handle. If they *do* manage to hit the barn door, it's generally one of theirs.
Perhaps some kind of 101 on *not* shooting the backs of their buddies wouldn't go amiss?

Ben, Birmingham, UK

ABC is reporting that subsequently a senior military official admitted that only 15 militants had been killed, with between 20 to 40 of their number wounded.

JW, Vancouver, Canada

Less well trained? How do you get that the American soldiers are less well trained? We train our troops very well and our NCO corps, officer corps and many of the troops are all battle hardened from fighting in Iraq or Afghanistan.

Brian, Syracuse, USA

Why does the article not specify insurgent losses, though it can confirm coalition losses. Is the truth being abstracted or has a body count simply not been published?

Daniel, Woodstock, England

RE Rob. Well said. This was in no uncertain terms a resounding victory to the ISAF. The taliban tried and failed to use the same tactics on british outposts,losing many men. Now they will lose even more as they try it on the less welltrained but still strong american troops. Well done lads.

Robin, Coleraine, UK

To those naysayers who say we are losing the war when things like this happen. Look at the bigger picture. Notice how the action is moving closer to Pakistan as ISAF pushes forward.

US, UK, Canadian, Dutch and Afghan forces will prevail if the politicans give them time. Just as in Iraq.

Douglas Newell, Saltcoats, UK

We will never win in Afghanistan... i dont understand why there is so much effort. Best possible outcome is a stalemate until the coalition finally gives up the ghost..
If our governments are worried about training camps ... simple bombing of such areas as they appear would be less costly .

Roy, Liverpool, England

Sorry to burst your progressive balloon, Matt, but war is indeed all about killing, not kissing.

That is, if you want to win.

Is your problem that Euro-peons no longer can win one?

Remind us not to "invade" your countries when you wail for freedoms willingly lost to your Sharia submission.

Cybella, Porter Ranch,

Here we go again, its all about kills isnt it? The Soviets lost around 15,000 soldiers, the Afghans lost around a 1/2 million (like someone else the Soviets didnt do body counts) who won? The Afghans bled the Soviet machine monetarily, that attack cost you millions, hows your going economy lately?

Matt, Birmingham, UK

If there's an attack against American troops by a larger number of hostile enemy combatants and the Americans kill ten for every one they lose and drive off the enemy, the word for that - strangely absent from your article - is VICTORY. Get it straight for next time.

Rob Sterling, Richmond, Virginia, United States of America