The main problem in Afghanistan seems to be thinking that is rooted in the thousands of years old tribal system and a religious fevor that still echoes that of a thousand years ago, as Kipling so aptly described it in the 1800s.
Even while we're losing though, as well we may be, we're winning. How? For many our men and women are examples of a different life, a different way of doing things, a more enlightened society, a more progressive people. This is steadily undermining the Afghanis trying to keep to the old ways, and even the Taliban will eventually lose to it.
The eyes of the children have been opened, their minds exposed to ideas from around the world, and they will begin to think differently than their parents and their ancestors have in the past.
There are new roads, distant villages are now but hours away from Kabul and Kabul but hours away from any place in the world. Primative living will be changed by TV and computers, just as they have embraced the cell phone. Children will leave home to travel, to learn, and then return to teach. We've already left an indelible imprint. The Taliban will always represent opression to the majority, tyrants, not saviors. Each cellphone, each computer, each TV, has almost equal value as a soldier, because it brings light into the darkest recesses of the cave of ignorance and intolerance. It will penetrate those remote mountain strongholds in Pakistan as well.
While victory may not seem evident, it is making its way inch by inch and foot by foot along those rocky trails, and our military is doing much of it without having to fire a shot

Michael I want to thank you for standing up for what you believe and being honest about it. Even if I disagree with you (and I don't), I respect your courage and the sacrifice you are making for our troops and our country.

I have never been in the military but I have always admired and respected the men and women that sacrifice their lives and families in service for all of us. I was a Pastor for several years near Fort Bragg, NC before and during the surge and I cannot put into words the love and repect I have for those who face death and dismemberment to protect us. Their lives are more important than our petty partisan political preferences or any hatred we may have for our enemies.

We need to be careful that we do not sacrifice their lives in vain in Afghanistan. The Russians showed us how to fail there, we need to be smarter than our enemies and not play their game. We all need you to keep telling it like it is.

"It is not possible to negotiate peace w/ an enemy that only wants war and sees that you only want peace"

Straight talk from Obama on Afghanistan? Really? Like his campaign promise to immediately send 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan and how that has now been trimmed to 17,000? That sort of straight talk? And it took him 3 days shy of a month in office to get around to doing that. And I'm not sure, but I seem to recall that Bush had already authorized/planned for an increase at least that size.

I can see how Obama's view of so called "torture" aligning with yours may enamor you with him, but please... don't cheapen your tremendous work on this site thus far by crediting Obama with things that just aren't true.

Have we forgotten that OBL has safe haven in a country that has nuclear weapons? He has been there for years now. Do you think he is just sitting back praying to Alla that the US won't find him? We have done nothing but make more enemies in that country and it seems to become more unstable as the years roll by. That plays right in the hands of OBL. Pakistan can't even maintain their own boarder. I hope that means they have more security watching their nukes. Pakistan is a ticking time bomb and needs to be treated as one, which is a world problem, not just a US problem. Wake up Europe and Asia!

I'm not over there and don't know the situation on the ground, but I've spent a lot of time hunting in the high mountains of Colorado. It seems to me that the very isolation and rugggedness of the terrain that gives these people sanctuary also makes them vulnerable. If the mountains of that region are anything like those in Colorado you just don't hike over them. The roads and walking passes must be constrained in such a way that interdicting them would make these valleys inaccessible. If these people can't get supplies then that makes it tougher for them to fight. Their access routes must be known to us. Why can't these people be cut off from travel? They aren't the only ones who can mine roads or otherwise make travel dangerous and difficult. Regarding Pakistan, if they don't or can't control these regions, then as far as I'm concerned they've forfeited national soverignty over these regions. Maybe they should be told as much.

Only John McCain and GEN Patraeus were talking about winning in Iraq? When Obama, McCaffery, Sanchez, Casey, Pelosi, Reid, Clintons, were all saying that Iraq was unwinnable? Winning takes determination, hard choices, and faith. If it was easy for the USA to win, why would anybody ever attack us? Just like in a football game, you have to want to win more than the other team. It's hard fighting a war when the GM is ready to quit any time the going gets rough. Its those at the top who need to get their heads right, not the troops down in the box. A NCO once told me to shake the hand of any vet wearing the 4ID patch because they survived the worse leadership in Vietnam. Sometimes I feel the same way when I look at that flag patch. As a group, the General Officers and up have let the US military down in this war on terror.

A nuclear Pakistan with radical fundamentalists in charge is a nightmare which can never be allowed to become a reality. We owe this to future generations.

Write off the weak ineffectual Pakistani Government, our support is buying extra time for our enemies to strengthen their positions. Our interests would be better served allying ourselves with India who has has as much to lose as us with a radical Pakistan. Let India help drain the Pakistan swamp and Afghanistan will sort out quickly.

Just see NationalReview's Campaign Spot.

I thought it was Afghanistan, now your telling us to not worry so much about that and focus on Afghanistan. How many wars are we suppose to fight? We fought in Iraq and you said it took away from our focus in Afghanistan. Now we are headed to Afghanistan and your saying we should be worried about Pakistan. Honestly, it sounds like your as confused as me.

the afghanis and their neighbors are ignorant when it comes to creating functional societies and therefore it must be imposed upon them from above. a killbox is created to bleed off dumb young men that the racket leading imams talk into doing everything except what is necessary to build a free society and Obama is the same f ing way. therefore we get to have a few more years of killing off their overstock and keeping our troops well trained and blooded. Otherwise they rot in forts getting weaker and dumber and the enemy gets more ignorant and backward.
buidling nations and freeing people is a noble job but in the end a soldier is a soldier and better realize it. kill as many of them as you can, try and talk as many of them as you can into opening their mind and then go home when your time is up. welcome to the real world.

Yes, The Supreme Court in a unique case has said that a detainee will be tried in US courts, but it impacts only that case. The rationale for permently detaining individuals is under the "threat to society" statures that are utilized for the mentally depraved, sexual predators who can be declared by professionals as a threat to society and can be detained infinitely. The system is there to do that legally. Just in the recent court case it said that the president could not be the one who made the decison arbitrareily, rather as the system is set up it will have to be a team of professionals who will make that determination and I can be rather certain that they will be from the armed forces and FBI, CIA type personnel who will do the classification of the danger and threat that they hold to humanity and society.

One thing I have taken from this site was bringing my attenntion the Pajamasmedia.com site. As I see Yon turning into a Obama puppet I feel at least my time has not been wasted. It's unfortunate that Yon has focused more on Obama then on what's happening on the ground. 6 months or so ago Yon had plently of photos and great storys about what's happening on the ground. Now I feel like I am looking at another Obama propaganda site. As i see that being the case I feel I have we have the right to talk politics.

I am not ashamed to be a conservative nor do I feel ashamed about criticising the President. I don't care how long he's been in office. He knew the stakes. Liberals need to get past that, your guy is screwing up already. Obama made promises, insuated the country was moving in the wrong direction, and said he had a better way. It's time to anty up. But as we can all see he does not have the answers. Maybe that's because there are still a number of key positions unfilled under his staff. Rookie mistake? Unprepared? Bad manager? Wrong managment team? Who knows. I would think he would need all the help he can get and right now he's barely treading water.

For someone who says they are unbiased you(Yon) sure don't present both sides of the story in each Obama article. Many of us have pointed out that these great ideas and pearls of wisdom from Obama have been said by the Bush administration. Yet you continue to fail to give credit to the orignial source in the same article.

I thought maybe I was the only one who saw this change in your reporting but the other posts have confirmed my thoughts that you are turning into another version of the dirve-by media.

On the bright side, I'm sure you'll have lots of money to by your equipment.

I agree with Yon, we can only negotiate from a position of strength and the best outcome we can hope for is to keep Afghanistan "irrelevant" as a sanctuary for Islamo-facistists/Taleban, and this will likely come at the expense of more dead American soldiers. I believe the price will be higher if we surrender and leave, as this will yield a recruitment bonanza for the bad guys and the likelyhood of another 9/11.

Those readers who seem to be giving up on Michael Yon, whether because he's willing to listen to Obama, or for some other reason, should let us know who else they've found to provide fair, full-time coverage of U.S. forces abroad. If there were any justice, Mike would already have been awarded a Pulitzer for what he's accomplished, and he'd have to go very far wrong before I'd be ready to do without him. I can certainly understand why he might wish to avoid any appearance of political prejudice.