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Originally posted by Chryz707 The thing that ends the war is the very thing that isnt visible. first they need to fracture the leadership of the Taliban which is starting to happen. Then they need to stop or at best try to slow down or hinder the Opium trade. This can put a real damper on the Taliban. Another thing thats the problem is we can get into Pakistan without them crying that we are invading them... UAV's are very effective but its like only using air assets to fight a war, its not really able to get in and win without troops on the ground. it will be endless unless we can get them out of that corridor in Pakistan really.

Yes fracturing the Taliban is needed to end the war.

No slowing the opium trade is not required, although controling it might be.

Yes Pakistan poses a dificult problem. Don't forget that the Pashtun made it within 70km of Islamabad this summer as they occupied the Swat vally. This is hardly a passified group of people.

thedoggyworld - yes Obama is putting a lot more pressure on the Afgans. This is in line with his proposal in his pre-election essay that was published in Forign Affairs (posted on this forum somewhere). IMO it's a needed step in the right direction for US foreign policy. It was looking really bad that the initial attack was only an attack and not an attack and disarm. If Obama and his team are able to calm that country and not just cut and run like Iraq, then the US will gain major international political capital.

Oh, another thing that would end the war is that the West could loose. I think this wouldn't look like a loss as one might expect though, it's not as if the Taliban are going to be sailing up the Potomak and burning down the white house, that's way to British a move anyway

I think a US / Western 'loss' would be a forced withdrawl due to economic crisis. It's not unthinkable but only time will tell. The real story about the crisis won't be seen until late August / early September as everyone comes back from vacations.