Why are we not doing better in Afghanistan? An analysis of the application of airpower in Afghanistan as of 2009

According to the United Nations, the general security situation in Afghanistan was deteriorating in 2008, and NATO's Secretary General admits that as we enter 2009 the situation there is not what the Alliance had hoped for. Why are we not doing better? In this article, I focus on the application of airpower in Afghanistan - the number one killer of insurgents in the conflict. My ambition is to provide answers as to how airpower is utilized in Afghanistan today, the extent to which it is, and why it is being utilized in this manner. Among other things, the article is based on interviews of the air leadership of ISAF in the period 2007-08. The article shows that the kinetic part of airpower has increased significantly during the past three years and that the dominating focus of the kinetic application of airpower in this period has been to support ground forces. Among other things, this means reducing casualties, and in that way ensuring that NATO protects its own centre of gravity - in turn ensuring the possibility of a NATO presence in Afghanistan over time.