It certainly does, Robert. It puts a lot of things into perspective. Like....will they have given their lives for nothing....I hope not, but I fear so. 
I've nothing but respect for all our lads and lasses in the forces but I think your right on that one 
It's impossible to prove a negative. The Armed Forces are there to make sure Afghan remains a place where terrorists can no longer plan and conduct terrror attacks against the UK and our allies.
From what I can tell you terry is firmly on the backfoot and any action like this one is nothing more than luck and desperation.
Talk of not making a difference or of pulling soldiers out early plays right into the hands of those we, as a country, are fighting and unless you have all the facts I can see why it may seem to you that this is the case. Also by belittling the campaign you also make the reason these boys put themselves in harms-way, and paying the ultimate sacrifice, seem worthless which is wrong.
Later this year we can chat about it over a beer, COIN (Counter Insurgency) is not something you can explain easily face-to-face let alone over the tinterweb.
Understand where you are coming from.
I still have a few mates who are "in the know" about these things and as we all know, over a few beers, things get mentioned that maybe shouldn't have

I would never knock any of the work our lads and lasses do out there or in other places that the goverment of the day decides to send them.
Thing that pishes me off is when the troops do come home, are the Afgan forces going to be able to hold there own without us or will it all turn to sh*t within a few years with the taliban and there chums even more determined to make our lifes a misery whenever they can get at us

Hence the "will they have given their lives for nothing....I hope not, but I fear so" comment.