[CB..]

i don't pretend to have any great in depth knowledge of the situation..but there is one fundamental thing that keeps cropping up..

"we" have a clearly defined military...which is seperate from the normal civilian population..and has it's own rules...and expectations..and definitions of victory and defeat...it also has expectations of what should happen when an enemy's countrys military is engaged fought and defeated....they surrender ...and the enemy civilian government then negotiates with the civilian government of the victorious nation..

the Afghans don't actualy have a clearly defined and seperate military "army" "airforce" etc...their fighters are for the most part civilians with weapons...with entirely different views on what consitutes victory and defeat...and no matter what else comes into play regarding the rights and wrongs of those civilians beliefs politics or anything else for that matter....the military CANNOT defeat the civilian population of any country...because civilians have no concept of military rules of engagement...
the goal posts for each side are not on the same playing "pitch"

they are not even fighting the same war....
the civilian population of any country cannot surrender...it's simply not possible there is no political mechanism that allows them to surrender..
so..neither side can win and neither side can lose...and only one side can withdraw...
too many people have died allready....