High-risk bid to register Afghans

Yet this is Taliban country, and at times the road is laid with land mines rather than red carpet. "I think stability everywhere is inevitable," said Lt. Col. Walter Piatt, the battalion commander, a day after an improvised bomb exploded just five feet from his vehicle. "It just can't happen overnight in every place."

The goal of the project is to win support of the local tribes, since it's unlikely Taliban forces would dare go against decisions taken by the tribal councils, who serve as the defacto government in these remote and isolated areas.

"The Taliban also function inside this tribal tissue," says Mr. Trives. "So after we leave their ability to undo our work is very limited."

But getting the tribal councils on board can be arduous. They haggle for hours over seemingly middling details. In some areas, they never reach consensus and so the convoy moves on. The UN hopes to have success in 50 percent of the districts they visit before elections slated for this fall.

Critics wonder if it's worth it. Some argue the costs and risks of such an operation in Taliban country hardly outweighs the payback of winning over a few thousand villagers. There's concern that future attacks on the mission might cause loss of life and intense controversy within the UN over working so closely with the US military.

Yet supporters say if it works, the project promises to wrest large swaths of Afghan territory from Taliban control. At the same time, it brings the reconstruction this region badly needs.

For the UN and the Afghan government, the project also promises to boost the legitimacy of the elections by increasing the numbers of Pashtun voters.

"We can not afford to let bureaucrats sitting in Kabul decide this is too dangerous," says Trives. "We have a duty to be bold and to engage these people."

For the US-led coalition, the mission also yields a wealth of intelligence, identifying which leaders work closely with the Taliban or Al Qaeda forces.

They also come across various clues as to how the enemy operates. "We have an urgent need for weapons like mines and rockets," reads a letter to a Pakistani extremist group found with a Taliban weapons cache. "You need to send them with animals across the border using the secret trails."

More importantly, the mission presents American soldiers as friends not foes. "I thought I was coming here to kill Taliban," says Captain Litzner, after a long day of mapping out aid projects with local tribesmen. "But out here you figure out quickly that digging wells and building schools is more effective than a bomb or an artillery battery."

The litmus test will come later, when it becomes clear how many villages in southern Paktika join the reconstruction process. Members of the mission say they have little doubt their approach is the way forward for Afghanistan and that denying the Taliban influence is the best way to win the war against them.

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