Wait, why hasn't the US military put down the Taliban after SEVEN YEARS of presence in Afghanistan?

Question

What's the holdup? Lack of manpower? Lack of materiel or resources? Lack of the right sort of strategy? Why weren't these Taliban guys knocked out for good back in 2002/2003?

Answer 1

Because we've dumped most of our money into Iraq, where the Taliban clearly wasn't.

Answer 2

The biggest problem is that Pakistan continues to allow them to hide in their country and refuses to allow the allies full access to follow them there.  Our ability to capture them is limited to catching them when they cross the border into Afghanistan.

It's not going to get better with the new government.

Answer 3

Could it be that the bush crime family likes having a boogie man they can point to and say "be scared, be very scared!"...or maybe, just maybe the taliban are on the CIA'S payroll...You never know when you might need to FAKE another terrorist attack....You know these men in a cave did not cause the U.S military to STAND DOWN ON 9/11.

Answer 4

Because this is largely a politically correct war... the media goes wild when even the *hint* of a civilian causality is brought up... That and the insane religious zealots from many *other* countries contributing money and personnel make it more difficult than it need be... And the Islamic Jihadist not only don't care about injuring civilians but, in fact, go out of their way to do so....

Answer 5

It is because the Pakistani government lacks a spine. They won’t fight the Taliban in their own borders, and they won’t let us go in there to stop them from regrouping. They’d rather close their eyes and pretend the militants will go away.  

Answer 6

Well, we completely removed them from power and kicked their ***, but there hasn't been enough effort in order to completely annihilate them.

Answer 7

because they run and hide and regroup in Pakistan and we wont go in there and kill every single living being along the border as needs to be done

Answer 8

Have you ever been to Afghanistan? Not like the bad guys run around with a sign saying "Taliban on Board". Defeating an guerrilla army takes time. Why are you in such a hurry?

Answer 9

the forces we had in Afghanistan were pared down to move them  to attack a country that did not attack us.