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Afghan security forces patrol in Kunduz in April 2015. Omar Sobhani / Reuters

According to Curtis, Pakistan has not changed its ways enough, and she advised the new administration to "take certain risks" with the government there.

"I'm not talking about making an enemy out Pakistan (but) we need to start enforcing the conditions on [U.S.] aid and be willing to push the envelope to a certain degree."

She suggested aid to the country and its major non-NATO ally status a designation given to close military allies "may be in jeopardy if they don't demonstrate that they are in fact an ally in the fight against terrorism."

The majority of Afghans nearly 70 percent live in districts under Afghan government control or influence, according to U.S. military estimates in late 2016. Nearly 10 percent are under insurgent control or influence, while the rest of the country lives in so-called "contested areas" essentially up for grabs.

That the government in Kabul still does not control swaths of the country is a cause for alarm, said Haroun Mir, a political analyst at the Afghanistan Center for Research and Policy Studies.

"We have tremendous security challenges," he said, pointing to the fact that the Taliban has challenged the Afghan security forces and gained the territory over the last few years especially since the U.S. officially ended its combat mission in the country in December 2014.

Afghan Interior Ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqqi dismissed these fears as overblown, however, saying the Taliban does not control "any strategic places" in the country.

The insurgents launch attacks on other areas from these low-population areas, he said.

"When it comes to control of the territory, of course the Afghan government, the Afghan people, they have full control of their territory," he said.

Sediqqi did acknowledge that the government has seen "an increase in the level of attacks by the Taliban."

Security cannot be discussed without also talking about corruption.

For one thing, as Kabul loses legitimacy through corruption, the Taliban often gains it through their own parallel systems of government and justice.

"That is a dangerous thing," said Mir, the analyst. That's because while extremely harsh, the Taliban are seen as more efficient and less corrupt than the Afghan government.

"They are famous for their delivery of justice," he said.

Mir is far from alone in sounding the alarm over graft and impunity.

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John F. Sopko, the special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction (SIGAR) the government's leading oversight authority on reconstruction in the country has called corruption "widespread and rampant."

"Corruption and poor leadership go hand in hand in Afghanistan," he said

In 2014, Gen. John Allen, the ex-head of the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan, called corruption not the Taliban the existential threat to Afghanistan.

While the U.S. ended its official combat role in Afghanistan in Dec. 2014, there are still around 8,500 U.S. troops there.

A U.S. soldier patrols across barren foothills outside of Forward Operating Base Shank near Pul-e Alam, Afghanistan, on March 30, 2014. Scott Olson / Getty Images

The Americans both advise Afghan troops in their fight against the Taliban and, separately, hunt and kill al Qaeda and ISIS-linked affiliated fighters.

This is down from more than 100,000 in 2010.

More than $115 billion taxpayer dollars have been spent in Afghanistan since 2002, with another $7.5 billion appropriated but not yet spent, according to SIGAR.

International donors have said they would provide financial support to the country and its security forces until 2020, with the U.S. making up the lion's share at around $5 billion per year.

The U.S. has stumped up more than $64 billion since 2002 $3.45 billion in 2016 alone to support the Afghan security forces.

Yes, lots of them. According to the U.N., the first six months of 2016 saw the highest number of civilian casualties on record since 2009 1,601 killed and 3,565 injured. Nearly one-in-three casualties were children, while more than 500 were women.

The Heritage Foundation's Curtis says the first thing the new administration needs to acknowledge is that "the security situation is extremely vulnerable" in Afghanistan and the strategy will have to be reassessed.

"We need to push the Taliban back and we can't afford to let them re-dominate the country," she said. "Both because that will turn back all the social and economic gains that have been made in the country but also because they will then provide safe havens for international terrorists intent on attacking us."

U.S. troops patrol the edge of a village near Pul-e Alam, Afghanistan, on March 29, 2014. Scott Olson / Getty Images

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