10 years at war in Afghanistan

Announcing the start of the military onslaught against Afghanistan on Oct. 7, 2001, President George W. Bush warned Americans that their patience would be tested “in the months ahead.” Ten years on, with more than 10 times as many U.S. troops there as when the war began, Americans are learning history's lesson: Getting into Afghanistan is much easier than getting out.

A majority of Americans now say the conflict that has killed 1,801 U.S. troops is not worth fighting. Afghan deaths were not reliably counted in the first years of the war. But the U.N. says 11,221 civilians have been killed since 2006, 1,462 of them in the first six months of this year.