Actually, there are several different factions involved in this conflict. While all are Fundamentalist Muslims, they differ in the same way that most other totalitarian regimes do. The Taliban ruled Afghanistan under Sharia, and plunged an already weak nation straight into the 13th century. Al-Queda used land provided by the Taliban to train terrorists, sometimes even using Taliban members as instructors. The Wahabi sect, from Saudi Arabia, also supports and arms Fundamentalist terrorists. These are only three of the multitude.
It seems odd, then, that entire districts and neighborhoods in Iraq are actively resisting these "few" terrorists today. They are tired of having to feed, equip, and house the "few", only to have their families and friends fall victim to them. It also seems odd to me that the "insurgents" you speak of are actively killing thousands of innocent Iraqis for every American killed. Something just doesn't make sense here.
As for the Heroin, I didn't think that the purpose of relieving the Taliban of control of Afghanistan had anything to do with heroin. The Taliban, for all of their dire predictions about growing heroin, found it to be somehow "pleasing to Allah". We haven't flouridated their water, either. Is that another reason to proclaim failure?
The individual American will understand as much of the Fundamentalist train of thought as they see fit. In WWII, nobody in the American People felt it necessary for the average American to study the psychological, or historical, precedents of the Japanese, the Nazis, or the Facists to be able to combat them. That's still true today. Unless and until you seek out the basic knowledge, allowing you to sort raw data from a position of competency, you are at the mercy of the sources. The average person will not access enough non-biased information to reach an actual understanding of the subject. Instead, he/she will read information published by agenda-driven authors, and arrive at mostly false conclusions, predicated upon his/her own experiences and opinions.
I believe that we can see that happening right here.
