We already can't use counter battery fire because the bad guys shoot from civilian areas. The MO is for the terrorists to setup a mortar tube in civilian areas, shoot a few rounds and run leaving the tube in the middle of the street. They know troops are on the way as soon as they shoot.
Right, but a counter fire battery fires mortars or similar exploding ordnance towards the location where the inbound weapon was fired. The anti-mortar is firing smaller, non-exploding rounds.
There has to be a big difference between say, a dozen 20mm bullets (albeit a depleted uranium bullets) falling back to earth near the perimeter of the base, and a dozen 60mm mortar shells each with 3-4 lbs of high explosives landing in a neighborhood.
Of course, I believe if we had a policy of always firing the counter fire batteries, people would be more likely to chase off the insurgents from their neighborhood.