...the CIA warned the war was turning out tougher than expected.

Oh Really? The Afghan war is harder than the USA thought? and they didn't know this even before they went in.
The British and the Russians couldn't break these people and neither will the USA.

and this:...

"We are making progress. But it's harder and slower than anyone anticipated," he said. ( head of the CIA, Leon Panetta)

Everyone I know has said from day one that this War on Afghanistan was doomed to failure - It's no surprise to me. Americans and their puppets will be coming home in bodybags for a few more years yet.

Every way they turn they will be bombed and when they do get around to building the multi-trillion dollar pipeline across Afghanistan, or start mining it's mineral wealth, it'll get blown up along with with everything else the USA does there.
This will be going on for a long time yet until the bankrupt US electorate eventually puts an end to the war.

But whats so annoying about reading these headlines is the surprised attitude they show. Do these people ever read a paper or watch world news? (Thats world news not USA mush.)
Sometimes I think that George Bush really did think there were atomic bombs in Iraq... we all knew there weren't. And the only chemical weapons were the US sponsered ones from the Iraq/Iran war when the USA was best of buds with Saddam.

The only thing the USA can do better than anyone else, is kill by remote control. Pilotless drones that kill without hesitation using weapons of targeted destruction.

What the USA cannot do is let anyone run any country that they don't have a big say in. This is their downfall and is why we are watching this painfull agonizing fall from grace that the USA is going through. Can they pull out of it?
I think not.
Why? Because they are just too damn arrogant.