The Russians tried to bomb the countryside into submission. It didn’t work then, and won’t now.
Afghanistan is not dominated by Islamic fanatics. The remote countryside has them, but even there the Afghan culture isn’t big into forcing someone else to believe what you do.
The COIN we’re doing IS killing the bad guys, and in large numbers. The problem are the bad guys in a safe haven in Pakistan. However, many Afghans don’t like Paks who cross the border.
And we ARE winning hearts and minds of Muslims. They are sending girls to school in record numbers in Afghanistan, and folks are starting to watch TV...a good way to spread the message. In rural areas, our biggest problem is that tribal leaders don’t believe we’ll be there for the long haul, so they hedge their bets - but few of them love the Taliban.
Bombing the hell out of folks won’t work. Sorry, but the US Army DOES know what it is doing (as does the USAF in its role, per this thread). We are winning, but we need the time to finish the job.
Going to school and watching tv is going to do it? Okay. Let’s look at all the educated terrorists. Osama, the 9/11 hijackers, the people running Egypt and Saudi Arabia. Sure, they love us because they can watch tv and the women go to school.
That’ll do it./sarc