The Pentagon report, “Enhancing Security and Stability in Afghanistan,” this month is warning that the “security situation in Afghanistan deteriorated” because of “an increase in effective insurgent attacks and higher ANDSF and Taliban casualties.”

It concluded: “Although the ANDSF maintain a significant capability advantage over the insurgency, insurgents are improving in their ability to find and exploit ANDSF vulnerabilities, making the security situation still fragile in key areas and at risk of deterioration in other places.”

Robert Maginnis, a retired Army officer and military analyst, said the Taliban’s continued strength shows that the U.S. should never have made such a major troop and money investment, first by President George W. Bush, then by President Obama. He declared Afghanistan was the real war in the fight against al Qaeda.

“It’s a country caught in the 14th century, and unless we are willing to spend trillions of dollars and many more thousands of lives over the next 50 years, then I see no hope of bringing that country into the 21st century and ridding it of radical Islamists,” he said.