A battle by western and Afghan troops that has raged in the past week in an enclave known as Marjah in Afghanistan's Helmand province has widely been reported as a make-or-break test for the global effort to secure the central Asian country.
Operation Mushtarak has been described as ‘a battle to mark the turning point' or ‘a fresh push to force a Taliban retreat' in some recent reports.
Additionally, in the past week, there has been added enthusiasm among US and other western officials over the future of their efforts to clamp down on militants, after a series of high profile Taliban were arrested in Pakistan.
In fact, a military victory in this once Taliban-dominated enclave is a given. The rag-tag nature of the Taliban militants is such that they have virtually no ability to withstand the technological might of the International Security Assistance Force, which includes soldiers from the world's most sophisticated army, deployed by the US.
Unrealistic
Nevertheless, it is nothing short of a pipedream to predict an end to what is likely to be a long-drawn-out conflict. Throughout history, guerrilla resistance movements have repeatedly demonstrated their ability to survive difficult and challenging situations.
There is no reason to expect that Afghanistan will be an exception to the rule, tried and tested over a long period of time. Some senior military figures in the Afghan-western military establishment have promised to seize Marjah and to never allow the Taliban to return.
For the Taliban, it is all too easy to melt away into Afghanistan's population or even go across the very porous border with Pakistan, regroup and fight another day. While Pakistan's security forces have captured some Taliban leaders recently, the militants still have access to vast swathes of remote areas along Pakistan's border with Afghanistan.
Ultimately, the determination of the Taliban to make a comeback is a characteristic of Afghanistan's native population.
There is no question that the Taliban and other hardcore elements that are similarly ideologically motivated present a major threat to their societies. This can be seen from the havoc they have wrought in Afghanistan and parts of Pakistan. But extremists can only be combated effectively by dealing with the roots of the conflict in Afghanistan, which remain largely unaddressed.
The tragedy of the long-drawn-out Afghan conflict is that the major combatants and their external sponsors have repeatedly failed to address the plight of the country's population.
Drawn into conflict as a result of the 1979 Soviet invasion, ordinary Afghans have found themselves either at the mercy of the warring warlords or suffering as a result of externally driven policies that have failed to address their fundamental needs.
Economic woes
Consequently, the rampant econ-omic degeneration of Afghanistan has forced an entire generation or two to become pawns in a larger conflict. Frequently left without econ-omic opportunities to make ends meet, scores of young men from across Afghanistan have found themselves drawn to the Taliban cause.
While the battle lines have been drawn and the world seems more determined to finish off the Afghan battle conclusively and move on, a final end to this conflict is not in sight.
There are severe dangers associated with a war that ends without a sincere effort to win the hearts and minds of the population.
Ultimately, the emphasis cannot simply be on creating a new Afghan national army and a police force, without an elaborate socio-economic network to meet the needs of the vast numbers of impoverished Afghans battered by the war.
If this is the case, the conflict may disappear from global TV screens, but it will not end. It is for this reason that the events of the past week should not be taken as a sign that the end of Afghanistan's conflict is in sight.
Farhan Bokhari is a Pakistan-based commentator who writes on political and economic matters.
