The headline from an article in The Australian, which struck me as different, but started to wonder when I read one cited source:

The best Taliban commanders are dead or captured. Their men are harried and subject to constant attack and betrayal. They are under-equipped, overwhelmed and demoralised. In a word, the Taliban are losing....

"The Taliban are broken and defeated here," Ahmed Wali Karzai, the brother of the President and the south's most powerful Afghan leader, told The Times yesterday.

"They are in a miserable state. Their best commanders are all dead and their fighters run here and there. Their casualties are high and they can barely fight."
Link:http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news...-1225935962365

Or The Washington Post, by retired General Keane after a two week visit:
First, most commanders with whom he spoke said they are encountering Taliban who want to stop fighting and reintegrate into Afghan society. "That's a big deal," he said.

Second, "There's evidence of erosion of some of the will of the Taliban. We pick it up in interrogations, and we also pick it up listening to their radio

traffic and telephone calls in terms of the morale problems they're starting to have."
Link:http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/...-afghan-surge/

Both reports up via a previously un-heard UK website, which in a comment added this:
Three thousand captured or confirmed killed in pre planned raids over 90 days, thats new.
Citing an article in The Daily Telegraph, not yet id'd.

Is this "spin" or a reality the usual media recoil from? Reading a "boots on the ground" perspective provided by http://blog.freerangeinternational.com/ I wonder.