Afghan president Hamid Karzai has warned that his country will need international assistance for at least fifteen years, and that any official announcement of a withdrawal date would be met by a full-scale Taliban offensive. Many areas considered relatively calm until recently have been coming under more frequent attack: including the province of Kunduz, as we saw in the last report. That means international troops being sent there have to prepare for a different, more hostile environment than on previous tours of duty.