What I find quite amazing is the inability of the foreign forces in Afghanistan to undertake any serious reasoning of their actions. Eight years into a war you think this wouldhave happened. It has not apart from a few isolatedmutterings from Nato generals which are quickly buried or treated as unpatriotic.To be involved in a war of any kind is by definition "a failure". A failure of diplomatic abilities as well as a failure of moral high ground; even if you are forced into a war. We have not advanced very far at all from Victoria gun boat diplomacy days. Historians essentially ridicule the events leading up to the first world war as if the magnitude of such a diplomatic folly will never happen again. Well actually it is. The folly of the saving and democratization of Afghanistanand the holy war the west is waging on Islam. The CIA, Mosad, Nato etc have been impotent in their ability to capture osama Bin Laden.It has becomea joke. The most powerful and technologically advanced nations cannot find him. One could understand a year or so,possibly 2, but no capture in 8 years? The reason is staring them right in the face. The war is not about technology. It is not Desert Storm played on a flat desert. The reason is also the very reason the USSR pulled out. The Afghan terrain makes it impossible for foreignmilitary victory. What is inevitable is that many more Afghan civilians,nato trops and Taliban will die. I will bet you anything you like that in 10 years nato and everyone else will be gone and the historians will write their academic reports on another foreign intervention disaster in Afghanistan. I will also bet something else. Nowone from Nato command has made a call to The Russian military to get some expert first-hand advice on how to conduct military operations in Afghanistan. Someone might say well The Russians were there years ago under different circumstances. true but this underlines the exact reason why Nato is doomed to fail here. This is a holy war that is fought in terms of decades or centuries. The Soviet time-line is indeed very relevant in the eyes of Afghans.