Oh_Bollox said:For me such news would be like landing of the Martians.
Okay, but most people don't care that much. Whereas 'Squaddy kills and eats 10,000 Afghans' goes straight to the top of the charts. The human interest stuff just doesn't interest a lot of humans.
Well, American, British, Canandian and other NATO troops fight, fight, fight... against Taliban until one side would be tired. And what side would be tired first? Maybe Taliban?
That's how most conflicts are fought, yes. They go on until one side is defeated, surrenders, etc. The main thing here is to win hearts and minds instead of just killing lots and lots of Afghans (which has the effect of turning hearts and minds to the Taliban). The more hearts and minds you win, the smaller the pool of support for the Taliban gets, until we win.
Of course you are right. But more than 5 years passed and still NATO troops are needed to fight Taliban. In fact it means that Afghani army doesn't exist or unviable. It is a real indicator of results of the struggle for hearts and minds. In fact the struggle failed.