Sir: The arrival of spring in Afghanistan has been marked by a series of multiple attacks by the Afghan Taliban, thus proving the claims of the US of a sure victory in Afghanistan false. Can we term this new spate of violence an intelligence failure on the part of the Americans? What about the claim of the US about rendering the Taliban weak enough not to be able launch any major offensive against the ISAF and NATO forces? I think it is time for the US to realise that the Taliban are a reality, that the Taliban are there to rule the post-US Afghanistan, that the Taliban cannot be ruled out of the negotiations held to bring calm in Afghanistan. Now that Australia has recalled its forces a year earlier from the war-torn Afghan terrain, it is time that the US too pulls out of this difficult situation and hands the country over to its nationals. LUBNA UMAR Islamabad