U.S. generals planning the promised offensive against Kandahar may now argue that the scheduled July 2011 beginning of the U.S. pullout from Afghanistan encourages the Taliban to push the United States against the wall it constitutes.
At the same time, the advantages of more vigorous combat directed against the Taliban must be factored into the effort by the Hamid Karzai government to draw at least some Taliban into greater cooperation with the Afghan authorities through means such as the just-completed loya jirga, or grand council meeting of tribes and factions in Afghanistan.
All in all, the complexities of Afghan politics, plus the rising toll in U.S. lives and expenditure on this war, argue strongly for drawing it to an end.
9 years! Enough. Let those people wallow in the 13th century. Islam and shariia are not compatible with western democracy. Enough!