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The Taliban is resilient.

Some of the generals are saying, 'We're making progress. We are clearing an area.' But you really don't defeat the Taliban by clearing an area. They move.

It's true that since 9/11, the application of conventional military rules of engagement has gotten a bit foggy. The Taliban were not an 'enemy state,' but the Canadian Forces conducted its operations in Afghanistan as though the rules of war applied anyway.

It is very clear that the people in Afghanistan do not want the Taliban back.

A guided missile corrects its trajectory as it flies, homing in, say, on the heat of a jet plane's exhaust. A great improvement on a simple ballistic shell, it still cannot discriminate particular targets. It could not zero in on a designated New York skyscraper if launched from as far away as Boston.

Talking to the Taliban is a process the Afghans have to manage. It is their country.

I mean, the Taliban, my view is that they have been weakened.

The SEALs rarely call the Taliban 'terrorists' because they respect them as worthy opponents.

We don't see that the Taliban ultimately can succeed, and it's a combination both of what the international community can do to support Afghanistan, not just in the short term, but over the long term.

The Taliban mostly attacks international and Afghan security forces. They rarely carry out attacks in markets.