After major offensives since mid-November with much of the powerful weaponry available to the United States command, including sustained artillery barrages, aerial bombing and airborne assaults with large numbers of helicopters, American commanders have reported an increasing tendency to attack "soft" targets.
Alongside such accounts, claims by the Northern Alliance of large numbers of front-line Taliban field commanders being prepared to defect had echoes elsewhere.
Chains of command have become disjointed, they admit, with larger numbers of junior commanders filling the space left by senior figures such as Mullah Dadullah, their overall commander in Helmand, who was killed by British special forces last May.
In an attempt to disrupt the airfield construction program, the Japanese Army commanders on Halmahera sent large numbers of reinforcements to Morotai between late September and November.
And one senior military commander told us that he expects large numbers of American troops to be in Iraq for the next 15 to 20 years".
When the gun battle with Shabab fighters erupted, not only was the element of surprise lost, but the mission commander also feared that a prolonged firefight could kill large numbers of civilians.
Iranian commanders have not said how they would be able to deploy large numbers of forces against Israel, located 1,600 kilometers (1,000 miles) away, or overcome Israel's powerful and technologically advanced military.
General Fahim, the designated defense minister and Northern Alliance commander, indicated that he did not favor the deployment of large numbers of foreign soldiers.
Local community leaders say a recent operation, which was led by a British commander, Major General Nick Carter, in Kandahar, the birthplace of the Taliban, led to large numbers of Islamist fighters fleeing across the border into Pakistan.
Large numbers of menhaden are netted annually.
