PATROL BASE WILSON, Afghanistan - More than five years after international forces rolled into Afghanistan, there is much debate about whether or not they're losing ground to a resurgent Taliban.
For Brig-Gen. Guy Laroche, Canada's top commander in Afghanistan, the answer is a firm No.
As his military convoy bumps over a road where Canada lost its first soldier to a roadside bomb, Laroche sweeps his arm toward the far-off mountains.
"There used to be 300 Taliban in this area,'' he said. "Now, they don't have the numbers for a face-to-face fight.''
As his crew keeps a close watch on every bump in the road and every person they pass, Laroche suggests the deadly bombing campaign of the Taliban is their last gasp.
"We'll never completely get rid of the Taliban,'' he said. "This is their home.''
But he said the insurgent force has been severely damaged and left unable to mount an effective fighting force. He suggested that's why the Taliban have resorted to the improvised explosive devices -- including suicide bombings -- that have taken the lives of 38 Canadian soldiers.
Despite the bombs, stability is being restored.
"Now you see families and children who've come back,'' Laroche said as a group of waving small children ran alongside the convoy. "A year ago you didn't see that.''
Meanwhile in Kandahar City, Afghan authorities paraded four suspected Taliban detainees for the media Thursday, claiming the Pakistani natives were would-be suicide bombers.
Although the four deny any plan to blow themselves up, they admitted they easily crossed the border into Afghanistan with jihad -- holy war -- on their mind.
"When Americans captured Afghanistan, we saw they were beating people, killing people, and from that time we had this idea of jihad,'' one of the young men, 24-year-old Mohammed Shohaib, said through an interpreter.
Shohaib said they received 12 days of training in Pakistan, including suicide bombing. Despite the urging of an Afghan official, however, Shohaib said they had no plans to carry out suicide missions.
"We came here to fight with guns, with weapons, not to blow ourselves up,'' he said.
Afghan authorities have long maintained that Pakistan is a source of many of the insurgents wreaking havoc in their country.
In this case, the four young men said they were arrested by Afghan intelligence officers within hours of arriving in Kandahar city, but many others like them aren't caught.
A year ago, Canadians took a lead in NATO's largest offensive to date in Afghanistan, Operation Medusa.
The mission was to drive the Taliban out of the Zhari and Panjwaii districts of Kandahar province _ the extremist movement's ideological heartland.
But the insurgents have returned, and so have the Canadians.
At Patrol Base Wilson, a sparse checkpoint along the highway west of Kandahar city, a patrol convoy rolled out as night fell Wednesday.
This once-sparsely staffed outpost in one of the most dangerous regions of Afghanistan has seen major reinforcement since the Van Doos regiment arrived last month.
Chief Warrant Officer Pete Marchand says the highway is a key trade route through the region _ and one the Canadians are determined to secure.
"It's a really important route and we want to make sure that security and development can continue in Afghanistan, so we have to secure this route,'' Marchand said.
"The Taliban is trying to terrorize everybody. They're trying to terrorize us with IEDs but they will not achieve that,'' Marchand said. "We're going to make sure the Afghan people can live safely.''
The patrol base is a joint operation between the Canadians and the Afghan National Police, a ragtag group that is largely under-paid, under-staffed and under-trained.
The youngest of the machine-gun-wielding police appears to be about 15. He jokingly points his gun at an out-of-place visitor.
"There's a lot of work to do and it's going bit by bit,'' said Marchand.
Laroche is more blunt.
"We know we can't leave them alone right now,'' he said.
