Within the U.S. military's rank and file, there are growing doubts about winning in Afghanistan, a mood that contradicts upbeat war reports delivered to Congress last week by the top commander and officials.

A senior military intelligence official who has served in Afghanistan and participates in daily briefings on the war told The Washington Times there is a "weariness" among officers as the war nears the nine-year mark in October.

"We are a battle-hardened force, but eight years now in Afghanistan has worn us down," said the officer, who asked not to be named because he holds a sensitive intelligence job. "Folks I work with and talk to every day just shake their heir heads in weariness."

The U.S. military is in what many consider the last critical phase of its longest war, as a surge of some 30,000 troops is being carried out and a battle to wrest control of southern Afghanistan from the Taliban is about to begin.

The intelligence source said commanders still have not found the key to shifting the loyalties of Pashtun tribal leaders away from the rigidly Islamic Taliban and toward the democratic government of President Hamid Karzai.

"We're fighting a cultural battle we have yet to come to grips with," the official said. "We don't get the Pashtun mindset. We can't figure out how to work through the system of corruption."

The source recalled a briefing where a three-star officer expressed little optimism about a good ending of the conflict. His remark stunned those in attendance.

The pessimism comes amid a recent increase in U.S. casualties as summer fighting between Taliban and allied forces increases. A United Nations quarterly report made public on Saturday stated that security declined in the first four months of the year as the number of roadside bombings and other attacks rose sharply.

Since the war began in October 2001, a total of 1,036 troops have been killed.

Anthony Cordesman, a member of a special assessment team a year ago that advised the top officer in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, wrote last week that the U.S. might leave without victory.