road, building a road, being used or to be used by u.s. and nato forces and the taliban said that was the reason they attacked. >> so what's happening here? is this more evidence that the taliban spring offensive is under way? >> reporter: absolutely. that's safe to say that. remember, the taliban recently declared they started spring military operations. we saw that action in kandahar the other day that we were talking about. >> i want to talk about this "the washington post" story. really good reporting on the fail ture to recruit taliban defectors. >> reporter: the ineffectiveness of the karzai government, with so many of the country's problems, the blame for this pretty much falls in his lap, as well. and the sheer inefficiency of the government. u.s. and afghan officials told "the post" they're losing the chance to capitalize on the military gains that we've seen, and the death of bin laden, et cetera, et cetera, by not bringing people into the fold.