months, it certainly concentrates the minds of those who are thinking about joining the insurgency," says a senior British officer working with SAS units in Afghanistan. "Suddenly there is an awareness that there is a price to be paid for planting roadside bombs. Families are less keen to let their sons volunteer." It would be tempting fate to say that we are finally winning the war against the Taliban, especially as the overall casualty rate for Nato forces this year is the highest since Western troops first deployed in late 2001. But these recent successes do suggest that the mission is heading in the right direction at last, with all the implications that might have for its future success. If, by virtue of the special forces' relentless onslaught, the Taliban can be persuaded that they are fighting a war they can never win, then the more moderate elements within the leadership might be persuaded to opt for political reconciliation with the Afghan government, which is the fundamental objective of Gen Petraeus's counter-insurgency strategy. Unfortunately, however, the overwhelming majority of the British public appears to be totally unaware of these highly significant developments. Rather than cheering the success of the SAS -- and all the other British units committed to fighting the Taliban -- the general tendency has been to lament our failures. That was the case again this week over Nato's decision to redeploy British troops from the bitterly contested town of Sangin, where 106 soldiers have lost their lives