Not only were the SEALs assaulting a compound swarming with Taliban (compared to a house in a quiet neighborhood of Abbottabad), but the mountains in Wardak made it far more challenging terrain than the wide valley of Abbottabad.
Only 49percentt of women in cities say they would support a deal with the Taliban compared to 84percentt of men.
Mr. Anderson and Mr. Wonke give their take by showing us the blank stares of the residents and their sensible protestations that life with the Taliban was "normal" compared with the new situation.
Unsurprisingly, the Afghan National Police have the highest casualty rates of all the security forces fighting the Taliban; 646 died last year, compared with 282 Afghan Army soldiers and 388 NATO troops, according to NATO figures.
A report by the Afghanistan NGO Security Office pointed to a 59% increase in Taliban attacks in the third quarter compared with the same period in 2009, and said the surge had "failed to degrade [the Taliban's] ability to fight".The government may share that view.
Compared with the Taliban years, business is much better, he said.
Mr. Durrani said he would work for a stable democratic system and stressed that the religious alliance should not be compared with the Taliban, which came to power by force.
BBC Middle East correspondent Jim Muir says the attempt to destroy Nimrud is already being compared with the Taliban's demolition of the Bamiyan Buddha rock sculptures in Afghanistan in 2001.
The Taliban in all their strands, compared with Sunni Iraqis, are infinitely stronger, as much as Karzai is much weaker than Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.
For sure, many Pashtun even in rural areas have no love of the Taliban, but the problem is that, compared with the Western-backed and hopelessly corrupt and feckless Afghan government, many Afghans see the Talibs as a less-worse alternative for how to order society.
