Gen. Stanley McChrystal, commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, and Defense Secretary Robert Gates visited the Afghan capital on Monday. Gen. McChrystal said the U.S. has all but routed the Taliban from their former stronghold of Marjah and that the military will now turn its attention to Kandahar — a key city that dwarfs Marjah in size.

And while McChrystal took care to note that we'll be looking at a "rising tide of security" rather than an Afghan D-Day, many observers wonder what the allied strategy will entail. For more, we hear from Col. David Lamm, who served as Chief of Staff of Combined Forces in Afghanistan from 2004 to 2005, and Chris Morris, BBC Correspondent in Kabul.