A mix of 'spin", "smoke" and comment this week on the talks in Kabul, where even Baradar is present, on some form of "liberty" from his Pakistani captors or hosts.

Link:http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...ret-talks.html

Andrew Exum's commentary, aptly titled Smoke and mirrors in Kabul:http://www.foreignpolicy.com/article...kabul?page=0,0

Which makes some interesting comments on the current campaign around Kandahar:
However, very little of what is taking place in southern Afghanistan can be known with any certainty. Journalists have been denied access to ongoing military operations and, though it is believed that the U.S. military and its allies have indeed been degrading the Taliban and its ability to reconstitute its organization once the fighting season resumes in the spring, questions remain: Did the U.S. military wait until too late in the fighting season to inflict serious damage on the Taliban before its fighters withdrew for the winter? Is the current drop in insurgent attacks any different from the normal seasonal drop in attacks that precedes the onset of winter? Is the degradation of the Taliban's organization forcing it to the negotiation table? And has the Taliban realized that the United States is not, in fact, leaving in July 2011?
And ends with:
It is still unclear whether the United States and its allies have managed to capture momentum in Afghanistan. In Washington, however, this narrative already appears to have won the day.
Zenpundit asks in response:
...why the United States is not negotiating directly with Pakistan/ISI instead of wasting valuable time kabuki-ing around with plausibly deniable and expendable members of proxy groups over which Pakistan holds a demonstrated veto?

Pakistan is our real adversary in Afghanistan and the party with the power to actually make agreements that stick.
This could be another thread, but I suspect SWJ readers look at this and the 'Working with Pakistan' thread.