Three weeks into the war in Afghanistan, American and coalition forces controlled about a fifth of the country. Eager to compare every American conflict to Vietnam, that’s when the media and the American left began their predictable use of the term “quagmire” to describe the conflict. A week later, of course, the Taliban government was crushed and its ragged remnants fled to the mountains.

It wasn’t widely covered in our media, but last fall, Afghanistan had a rather successful election that was remarkably free of bloodshed. To say the election was a historic event is to downplay it. It was monumental.

Now there seem to be even more reasons for optimism:

One of the Taliban’s most senior and charismatic commanders has become a key negotiator as more and more members of the Islamic militia in Afghanistan give up the fight against the Americans.

The commander, Abdul Salam, earned the nickname Mullah Rockety because he was so accurate with rocket propelled grenades against Russian troops.

He later joined the Taliban as a corps commander in Jalalabad before being captured by the Americans after September 11.

Now he is a supporter of President Hamid Karzai and is tempting diehard Taliban fighters to accept an amnesty offer and reconcile themselves to Afghanistan’s first directly elected leader.

“The Taliban has lost its morale,” he said, speaking by satellite phone from the heartlands of Zabul province, a Taliban redoubt.

“But you have to go and find the Taliban and call to them and ask them directly. If they believe they will be secure and safe they will come down from the mountains.”

After the Taliban’s three-year struggle against a superior U.S. force, there is growing optimism among the Americans and Afghan government that the end is close.