U.S. soldiers check for land mines on a canal running through Highway 1 in Afghanistan's Kandahar province, Aug. 6. Improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, are the Taliban's weapon of choice and are the leading killer of civilians and soldiers in Afghanistan. Romeo Gacad/AFP/Getty Images hide caption

Incarcerated children sit at the Kabul Juvenile Rehabilitation Center May 18, in Kabul, Afghanistan. The four boys were believed to have been recruited by the Taliban as suicide bombers. In an end-of-Ramadan tradition, President Hamid Karzai recently ordered the release of two dozen children held as suspected suicide bombers. Paula Bronstein/Getty Images hide caption

Tayyeb Agha at a Taliban press conference in November 2001 in Kandahar, Afghanistan. Patrick Aventurier/Gamma/Getty hide caption

Former President George W. Bush speaks to student from the Youth Exchange and Study program at the White House in 2005. The program began in 2004 and ended for Afghan students this year after half of those enrolled fled to Canada. Alex Wong/Getty Images hide caption

An Afghan holds a bouquet of poppies near the city of Kandahar, Afghanistan. Majid Saeedi/Getty Images hide caption

Defeated candidates from Afghanistan's September 2010 election wait for the resumption of proceedings of a special tribunal in a Kabul courtroom on Thursday. The tribunal decided that 62 members of Parliament would be replaced on fraud charges. Gemunu Amarasinghe/AP hide caption

Gulab Mangal, the governor of Afghanistan's southern Helmand province, says his security forces are ready to take control in the provincial capital of Lashkar Gah. Quil Lawrence/NPR hide caption