The Iraqi insurgency is also a "spent force"

The New York Times for Saturday has some news of our latest forgotten war.

During the last six months, American and Afghan officials have predicted the collapse of the Taliban, the hard-line Islamists thrown out of power by American forces in 2001, citing their failure to disrupt the presidential election last October and a lack of activity last winter.

But the intensity of the fighting here in Zabul Province, and in parts of adjoining Kandahar and Uruzgan Provinces - roughly 100 square miles of mountain valleys in all - reveals the Taliban to be still a vibrant fighting force supplied with money, men and weapons. ...

With a ready source of men, and apparently plentiful weapons, the Taliban may not be able to hold ground, but they can continue their insurgency indefinitely, attacking the fledgling Afghan government, scaring away aid groups and leaving the province ungovernable, some Afghan and American officials say.

US forces have taken to making probes into the region in an attempt to provoke the Taliban into firefights, generating "some of the heaviest combat in Afghanistan in the last three years," but still finding the Taliban resupplied with willing volunteers. What's more, they've been finding that villagers are supporting the Taliban because "they don't loot and they respect the women," an informant told them.

Which, as is so often true, indicates that the problem may not be so much with America's foes as with its friends.