WASHINGTON - The largest land battle in Afghanistan - and the deadliest one for U.S. forces - is raging at a time when many Americans believed the war was finally drawing to a close.
And the grinding pace of the operation raises new questions about the scope of the United States' current and future commitment in the country, as well as the worth of its Afghan allies, say lawmakers and policy analysts.
Moreover, they say, the continuing fight in the mountains south of Gardez could well slow America's war on terrorism, particularly any plans to mount a U.S.-led attack on Iraq.
With the Taliban regime vanquished three months ago and the remaining pockets of al-Qaida scattered, there was a sense that Afghanistan was largely pacified. The debate had turned to international peacekeepers and aid to the interim government of Hamid Karzai as the United States set its sights on terrorists in the Philippines, Yemen and Georgia.
Now, with vivid televised pictures of Americans under fire, flag-draped coffins arriving by cargo plane and U.S. reinforcements surging to the front, there is a growing sense that more needs to be done in Afghanistan.
"I think Afghanistan is going to take a little bit longer than the public at large thought a couple of months ago," said Mackubin Thomas Owens, a retired Marine colonel and a professor at the Naval War College.
But he noted that the Pentagon has consistently said it will take months to root out the remaining pockets of al-Qaida and Taliban fighters.
"I don't think it surprised anybody in the military," he said.
Ivo Daalder, a foreign policy analyst at the Brookings Institution and a member of former President Bill Clinton's National Security Council staff, said the fierce battle in Paktia province involving more than 2,000 U.S., Afghan and coalition troops shows "the security climate is still highly uncertain."
"I think we're going to be doing this for many months," he predicted. "You realize Afghanistan needs more attention. We're going to be there until summer, if not later."
Daalder also said that any military campaign in Iraq, which some administration officials and analysts have referred to as Phase Two of the war on terrorism, will be sidetracked by the fighting in the rugged and bitterly cold mountains that border the Shah-e-Kot valley.
"I think it puts the debate on hold about the wider war on terrorism," he said. "As long as we're engaged in a war in Afghanistan, we're not going to have time to plan for Iraq."
