I think you guys are being too hard on yourselves or have extremely inflated opinions about the abilities of your armies !! The Afghans in general and the Pashtuns specifically see Westerners as violently different in terms of religious, cultural, ethnic and political orientation. To top it all you appear the losing side with a planned departure date !! What did you expect ? To complicate things you have a rabidly anti US country through which your major Lines of Communication pass. I think that you're doing pretty well for now. My solution : shore up the moderates, Hazaras, Shias & Tajiks, kick the Pakis in the balls while you skedaddle.