Such a strategy "will show our commitment to the success of mission that is clearly in our national security interests, without creating a bigger U.S. military footprint that provides propaganda fodder for the Taliban," the influential Michigan Democrat, who recently returned from a trip to Afghanistan, was quoted as saying.

Sobering words that point to the prevailing mood about Afghanistan within President Barack Obama's own party which, as noted by The New York Times, the president would need to consider when deciding whether to send more troops to that country in addition to the 68,000 already committed.

Earlier in the week, another influential Democrat, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, was quoted as saying she did not think "there is a great deal of support for sending more troops to Afghanistan in the country or in Congress."

Separately, the Voice of America reported on a finding last week by a London policy institute that the Taliban's activity has spread to 80 percent of Afghanistan, just eight years after its regime was destroyed. The finding should come as no surprise, with U.S. commanders having acknowledged the Afghan ground situation has deteriorated.

Adding to U.S. concerns is the unresolved issue of the Afghan elections, whose outcome is mired in serious voter fraud complaints, with thousands of questionable votes already set aside by the U.N.-backed Electoral Complaints Commission.

Though preliminary results show President Hamid Karzai with a huge lead in his bid for a second term, it is the Complaints Commission, made up of Afghans and foreigners, that is the final arbiter and not Afghanistan's Independent Election Commission, which is battling its own allegations.

But the Complaints Commission's work may take weeks or months to complete as all the hundreds of serious complaints must first be resolved before it certifies the election results, as that could affect the final outcome.

But any delay would leave the already fractured country without an effective government, giving more fodder to the Taliban to claim vindication of its opposition to foreign presence as also the elections. Britain's Daily Telegraph reported U.S. officials were frantically trying to get Karzai to agree to a power-sharing deal with his nearest poll rival, Abdullah Abdullah, to avert such a situation. But such an arrangement could set off another set of problems.

Britain's Guardian reported these developments can only raise the stakes for the United States and Britain, where popular support is dwindling fast for a war seen only as favoring a corrupt and ineffective regime at untold cost both in terms of men and resources to the United States and its allies. The months of July and August were the bloodiest for U.S. forces with more than 90 dead, not counting the September casualties. The situation is no better for Britain, which has lost more than 200 of its soldiers since 2001.

Some experts have even begun drawing comparisons between the Afghanistan situation and the Vietnam War, the VOA reported. But those who disagree say there are major differences with Afghanistan being far more ethnically diverse with deep tribal links. They say the goal of the Afghan war is to prevent the Taliban and al-Qaida from securing a home base, whereas in Vietnam the objective was to stop a communist-backed insurgency. U.S. troop strength in Afghanistan is also far below the peak reached in Vietnam.

Despite the rising burden of Afghanistan, commentators like Newsweek International Editor Fareed Zakaria argue against a withdrawal.

In his recent column in the news magazine, Zakaria wrote, "The United States, NATO, the European Union, and other nations have invested massively in stabilizing the country over the past eight years" and a withdrawal would only bring back the region's players, resulting in the "revival of the poisonous alliance between the Pakistani military and the hardest-line elements of the Taliban."

related report
US: Afghan govt failures as dangerous as Taliban
The top US military officer warned Tuesday that the Afghan government's credibility problems with its own people posed as serious a threat to US goals in the war-torn country as Taliban fighters.

"I consider the threat from lack of governance to be equal to the threat from the Taliban," Admiral Michael Mullen, chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff, told the Senate Armed Services Committee.

"The lack of legitimacy in the government at every level" has been a key factor in the return of the Taliban after US-led forces drove them from power after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, he said.

Mullen also told the sharply divided US Congress that Washington and its NATO allies will likely need to send thousands more troops and trainers of Afghan security forces to defeat the resurgent Islamist militia.

"We can get there. We can accomplish the mission we've been assigned. But we will need resources matched to the strategy," he said, stressing: "A properly resourced counterinsurgency probably means more forces."

Mullen said the top US and NATO military commander in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, is likely to submit a formal request for more forces in the next few weeks but that he did not know how many.

The admiral said he backed calls for increasing training of Afghan security forces, but emphasized that this would not be enough to win the conflict and that such an effort required as many as 2,000-4,000 more trainers on top of the roughly 6,000-6,500 now on the ground.

Asked how many should come from Washington's NATO allies, Mullen replied: "As many as possible."

His testimony to the panel came after a new public opinion poll provided fresh evidence that the US public is increasingly turning away from the unpopular eight-year-old conflict.

Support for the war slipped from 42 percent in late August to 39 percent, while opposition edged upwards from 57 percent to 58 percent, according to the survey by CNN television and Opinion Research Corporation.

The survey, which had an error margin of plus or minus three percentage points, came as Obama took heavy fire from Democratic allies over his likely push for pouring additional US forces into Afghanistan's front lines and from Republicans over what they charge is the sluggish pace of new deployments.

Senator John McCain, the committee's top Republican, said he was frustrated by a White House announcement Friday that any new troop request will not come for "weeks and weeks," while military officials say the clock is ticking.

McCain also said he disagreed with calls for the panel's chairman, Democratic Senator Carl Levin, to accelerate the pace and scope of training of Afghan forces before sending more US troops.

Mullen said training was critical to US success but ultimately insufficient to achieving Obama's goals, announced in a strategic overhaul in March, of quashing the Taliban.

Levin, recently returned from Afghanistan, renewed his call for redoubling efforts to train, equip and deploy Afghan soldiers before any further expansion of the US troop presence, which is set to reach 68,000 by year's end.

"We need a surge in the numbers and strength of the Afghan security forces," he said. "In the meantime, we should also press our NATO allies much harder to provide more trainers."

Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said Obama could likely count on support from his Republican critics on Afghanistan if he heeds the advice of the military.

"I think it's reasonable to assume that, if the president follows the recommendations of our military leaders, he's likely to enjoy broad Republican support," McConnell told reporters.

Mullen expressed concerns that charges of vote-rigging in Afghanistan's recent presidential ballot are "not helping" bolster the Kabul government's standing with the country's population.

"We could send a million troops, and that will not restore legitimacy to their government. Would you agree with that?" asked Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina.

"That is a fact," said Mullen, who later warned that corruption "is every bit the threat that the Taliban is."

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