“General Stanley McCrystal is the top commander of US and NATO troops. He told commanders in Afghanistan he wants a cultural shift away from conventional warfare toward counterinsurgency operations the aim is to win the support of the Afghan people.” (CCTV)

It’s the Obama administration’s new counterinsurgency strategy for the war in Afghanistan and includes 22,000 reinforcements, a major Marine offensive in the Helmand province, and an end to opium eradication efforts.

We’ve researched media perspectives on the new strategy to quote “talk more-shoot less” and found world media outlets are questioning will this nice guy approach work?

PBS NewsHour starts us off with coverage on how the strategy is different. Finding that rather than firepower and nighttime raids:

“The real focus there has been on trying to win over the local population. It’s a very unique position these thousands of U.S. Marines are being put in, they’re out there walking around trying to engage with the local population, trying to convince them that they’re here more for the safety of the Afghan people rather than pursue the Taliban.”

CNN Pentagon Correspondent Barbara Starr isn’t convinced. In times of war talking isn’t going to get the job done. She says if the U.S. wants to eradicate the Taliban they need to get their hands dirty.

“…as you have you have the Taliban drifting away, melting into the hills, into the desert, they’re waiting it out, that’s what these insurgents do. So fundamentally this is going to be a waiting game.”

Canada.com views the insurgency through the scope of internal Afghan politics. Afghan President Harmid Karzai’s political rival in the upcoming elections is running on ‘change’. His campaign aligns with the US strategy – saying fighting won’t work.

Canada.com says thousands side with the Taliban because of resentment, grievances, corruption, injustice and civilian casualties.

"Thousands of people are with the insurgency because of resentment, because of grievances, because of failure of the government, because of corruption, because of injustice, because of criminal police. And there are other factors, such as civilian casualties."

Al Jazeera English had an exclusive with a top Taliban commander who voiced how the Taliban plans to respond to the West’s nice guy approach.

“We have hundreds of mujahideen and in this unit alone we have 12 suicide bombers they are ready and waiting for their orders.” “There tactics are simple. We’ve got new bombs that explode when tanks get within 20 meters of them. We make them ourselves. They’re strong devices and only cost us $40 to put together.”

So do you agree with the “talk more-shoot less” strategy or do you think the nice guy approach just won’t work on the Taliban?