The familiar rapid-fire swagger of U.S. military briefings, cataloging thermobaric bombs and B-52 raids, is giving way to a sobering new tone this week. The war in Afghanistan, it turns out, is far from over. A number of GIs have been killed, and more may die. It's not that American leaders downplayed the danger of mountainous battle zones, but there was a sense, perhaps wishful thinking, that the "direct combat" phase of the battle with Al Qaeda had passed.
So now, other assumptions are being questioned. Afghanistan's interim government, the international peacekeepers, the NGOs and the battle-weary people of that broken land are all being reconsidered, as Western military might is re-focused on new targets.
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Neamat Nojumi, Central Asian expert and author of "The Rise of the Taliban in Afghanistan"
Brig. General John Reppert (ret.), Executive Director of Harvard University's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
Rear Admiral Craig Quigley, spokesperson for the Department of Defense
and Susanna Price, BBC correspondent in Kabul.
Price: It is very much in their interest to see al-Qaeda pushed out. listen
