Strategypage reports on the failed Taliban effort to hammer Afghan forces as we step aside and help them fight rather than take the lead in the fight:
The Taliban is increasingly dependent on suicide bombers to inflict casualties on the security forces. Foreign troops are much harder to target because the Afghan soldiers and police are taking care of most of the security tasks now and the foreigners stay in the bases most of the time. This bothers some Afghans because the foreign troops are more efficient and despite much improvement over the last decade the Afghan forces will often show up too late to prevent civilian casualties. ...
American commanders believe the Afghan security forces are winning against the Taliban. While some army and police commanders have been bought off by the drug gangs, this has not been frequent enough to cause major breakdowns in security. Public opinion still matters and bad behavior by the Taliban (as in trying to take control of an area) will still bring in soldiers and police who tend to defeat the Taliban and restore government control. The Afghan forces take more casualties than the foreign troops but still manage to have an edge in combat and the Taliban are still suffering heavy losses. This is causing morale problems because Taliban leaders have long promised that once the foreign troops were gone the Taliban would have no real opposition.
Nobody said we could train Afghans to be as good as us. But we don't need to do that to be successful. The Taliban aren't exactly a bunch of West Pointers, you know?
If we remain to help with logistics, medical evacuation, air power and artillery, and intelligence (including using contractors for some of this) as well some special forces and a good combat brigade as a force of last resort, Afghans can keep punishing the Taliban and prevent jihadis from restoring Afghanistan as a haven to plot attacks against us.
