It’s a long term commitment that appears to be wearing on lawmakers who want to know this:

“Wouldn’t it be helpful for the president to at least lay out a flexible timetable,” asked US Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI).

He is referring of course to a timetable for when the US is getting out of Afghanistan. That is beyond the July 2011 date to start the withdrawal US President Barack Obama previously set.

It is given no assurance “that this should not be an open ended occupation,” said Senator Feingold.

Holbrooke emphasized the US’s committed to no calendar.

“I am very leary of giving an absolute date of troop withdrawal from the region,” he told congress.

But still, the end game is unclear.

“The military and civilian mission is proceeding in Afghanistan without a clear definition of success,” said Senator Richard Lugar (R-IN).

The ambassador is banking on the success of reintegrating the Taliban, starting next week. But little about Afghanistan appears to be in US favor.

“It’s not where you chose to defend the American homeland,” Holbrooke said of Afghanistan. “It’s the most logistically difficult place the US has ever fought in its history.”

But just who can put an end to this fight, in the absence of withdrawal dates, and if military and political missions fail?

“The congress has the ability to stop the war by not funding it,” Kucinich pointed out.

As US lawmakers and officials talk strategy and tout successes in Afghanistan, this comes amidst escalating violence in the region. June was the bloodiest month since the conflict started. One hundred international troops were killed. So far in July 45 have been killed, 33 of those were Americans. And in the last 24 hours alone, 12 have been killed.

“The Afghan army is ineffective in every possible way, so the Taliban are going to gain momentum and unfortunately unless there is peace talks and peace negotiation the situation will always be a quagmire,” said Diliberto.

Diliberto argued that the Taliban is a generational mindset that is deeply embedded into the culture. It is an ideology that cannot simply be defeated with force and no amount of money will make the Taliban stop fighting.

“The main reason for the rise of the Taliban is because we are in their villages and valleys. We shouldn’t be there,” said Diliberto.

He added that utilizing a proposal US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton supports that would use funds to buy-off Taliban members won’t work.

“It would be kind of similar to bribing gang members to rat out other gang members” he said. "The concept is absolutely ludicrous.”