The real meaning of the audacious break-out of prisoners from a Kandahar jail lies in the fact those more than 100 Taliban commanders are supposed to be in the middle of the escapees. These are not the top-ranking members of the leadership who run overall plan – most of whom remain safe in Pakistan – but the crucial mid-level militant who lead groups of between 50 and a few hundred fighters.
One of the most significant lessons learned by US forces in Ira>Iraqq was the utility of target such men. Thinning their ranks not only eliminate enemies who cause casualties on a daily basis and disrupts units on the ground but has imperative consequences for insurgent movements as a whole. If adequate numbers of them are killed, a gap begins to come into view between the calculated leadership and the foot soldiers.
Two problems that the Taliban upper authority has always wrestled with is the course and the discipline of its fragmented and often discrete fighting force.
