Commander of U.S. Forces in Afghanistan General Stanley McChrystal’s August 30, 2009, assessment of the war “made a number of key points–that the situation in Afghanistan was ‘serious,’ that the Taliban…were running a de facto government in southern Afghanistan with shadow governors, sharia courts, tax collectors, and even Taliban ombudsmen to handle the complaints of the population, and that their key objectives were the control of Kandahar and Khost provinces in southeastern Afghanistan. To reverse this McChrystal recommended a ‘comprehensive counterinsurgency campaign’ to be achieved by protecting key population centers and main roads and doubling the size of the Afghan army and police. McChrystal also pointed out that ‘resources will not win the war, but under-resourcing could lose it.’ “
– Peter Bergen, The Longest War, Pages 320-321