Emboldened Taliban Reflected In More Attacks, Greater Reach

A French soldier stands guard near the site of a bomb attack on a convoy of French troops in western Kabul last week. One soldier was killed and many Afghans nearby were injured. (By Rafiq Maqbool -- Associated Press)

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"The will of the people is incredibly important to anybody who is waging a counterinsurgency operation, and I think the will of the people could have a finite shelf life," he said. "If we can continue to show some steps of progress, especially in the business of reconstruction, then we can hang on to the people for a tad longer."

Officials cite significant achievements since the fall of the Taliban, including lower mortality rates for mothers and children, rising economic growth rates and the construction of hundreds of miles of roads. More than 670 schools have been built or refurbished, and more than 5 million students are enrolled in classes, compared with 900,000 under the Taliban. McNeill said the Afghan army also has been gradually beefing up its capabilities. The force now stands at about 40,000 and is expected to reach 70,000 trained and equipped soldiers by the end of next year.

Fighting and holding ground "is a problem for us," McNeill said. "We're not all the force we should be, both in size and capability." Boosting Afghan army and police forces is a key goal because indigenous forces typically are the most effective in fighting a counterinsurgency, he said.

But they face a formidable foe.

"The Taliban has already fought one war for this country, and they were quite successful," eventually ruling for five years, Lee said. "You don't do that without learning how to do things: establishing supply routes, isolating Kabul, how to target aircraft."

In an insurgency, he said, "you don't have to win, you just need to make sure the other guys don't, and they have time on their side."

Special correspondent Imtiaz Ali in Peshawar, Pakistan, contributed to this report.