Time Magazine: Afghanistan - Obama's Afghanistan Surge: A Long War With an Uncertain Outcome - by Tony Karon

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Right now,as US General McChrystal has repeatedly made clear, the insurgents are actually winning. The urgency of sending reinforcements is to stop them from overrunning any population centers, to halt their momentum and ultimately to fight them to a standstill. That would give space for the development of Afghan governance and security forces, but it would also enhance prospects for some sort of political solution. Karzai has already reached out to the Taliban leadership through intermediaries in Saudi-brokered talks that have gone nowhere. It's generally acknowledged by Western officials that the outcome in Afghanistan will require a political solution that integrates most of those currently fighting for the Taliban. Right now, however, the Taliban have no interest in seeking compromise because they believe they can regain control of Afghanistan on the battlefield. Only if they're fought to a standstill, goes the argument, and if Taliban commanders see more to gain and less to lose in some form of power sharing, might they be prepared to settle for less than restoring what they lost when the U.S. invaded in 2001. Note EU-Digest: the Afghanistan war is starting to resemble the Viet-Nam war more and more.