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To reach this remote district, a nine-person team from the Afghan presidential palace recently drove across rough, mountainous terrain where rock-covered paths turned to icy roads that repeatedly pushed their Toyota pickups to their limits.

When they reached a high school in Ruyi Du Ab, a two-hour drive from the capital of the northern province of Samangan, hundreds of men lined up to receive flour, sugar, rice, cooking oil, dates, blankets and rugs.

The community was still reeling from floods in the spring that left the largely agricultural area devastated. Farmers watched their crops and livestock wash away in the surging waters.

"There are families that didn't even have a single drinking glass left," one resident said.

An effort spearheaded by Afghanistan's new first lady, Rula Ghani, to get relief supplies to thousands of families as Afghans face winter has focused on remote areas where geography, climate and insecurity often hinder international aid efforts.

It is one of the first major projects undertaken by Ghani, who has said she wants a more public role than many of her predecessors, including Zinat Karzai, a gynecologist who was rarely seen in public.

In a country where most humanitarian assistance is distributed by the United Nations and Western aid agencies, Ghani's relief effort was funded by a $2-million grant from Saudi Arabia, part of a $130-million aid package that the government in Riyadh offered to Afghanistan during President Ashraf Ghani's visit in October.

Although President Ghani's administration has yet to decide on a Cabinet, the first lady's aid delivery was in part a way to show that the Afghan government could serve the country in ways other than politics. Yet it also carries risks for the first lady, a Lebanese-born Maronite Christian who has not concealed her background, which could be used against the president by conservative critics.

The last spouse of an Afghan leader to have a prominent public role was Queen Soraya, the wife of King Amanullah Khan, who ruled Afghanistan from 1919 to 1929. Soraya was politically active, serving as the king's education minister and joining his campaign against the conservative burka worn by some Afghan women.

For Ghani, who was active in charity work before her husband was elected president, the aid delivery was "an opportunity to not only reach the truly vulnerable but also for us to get a better sense of exactly what it takes to help those who find themselves in consistent need," she said in an interview in her office at the presidential palace.

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Afghanistan's first lady steps into public eye with rural aid effort

After falling to record lows, support for the Afghanistan war has risensince 2013, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll that also finds majority support for a plan to keep thousands of troops in the country in the coming year.

Overall, Americans remain downbeat over the war at the end of NATOs 13-year combat mission. A 56 percent majority says it has not been worth fighting, continuing a negative streak that dates to 2010 in Post-ABC polls. But 38 percent in the new survey say the war was worth the costs, up eight points from December 2013 and 10 points from a record low that July (28 percent).

The bounce-back in positive views is driven by a dramatic reversal of opinion among Republicans. Only 39 percent of Republicans said the war was worth fighting in late 2013, but 56 percent believe sotoday, marking an end to a massive downward slide since 2009. In the early months of Barack Obamas presidency, as many as 77 percent of Republicans said the war was worth fighting.

Support for the war also increased among political independents in the past year, from 26 to 35 percent, though roughly six in 10 independents and Democrats alike continue to say the war was not worth it.

Despite the overall negative appraisal, over half of Americans (54 percent) favor keeping U.S. troops in the country to help Afghan forces train and perform counter-insurgency roles. The residual force garners rare cross-partisan support, including at least half of Republicans (66 percent), Democrats (52 percent) and independents (51 percent).

At peak levels, in 2010 and 2011, the U.S. had 100,000 troops in Afghanistan. That number has fallen dramatically since then and will drop to10,000 in 2015 and half that by 2016. With the U.S.-led NATO combat mission officially over, about half of the American troops remaining are expected to serve in a new NATO operation advising and training Afghan security forces and half will service in a separate U.S.-only contingent focused on force protection, logistical support and counterterrorism.

Americans are split down the middle on the question of whether the Afghan war, launched in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, has made the U.S. more secure. Forty-eight percent say it has made the U.S. more secure while 47 percent say otherwise, marking a modest improvement from 2013, when 50 percent doubted the impact of the fight on U.S. security. Few see major benefits, however, with 19 percent saying the war has contributed a great deal to national security.

Partisan divisions return on this issue, with nearly two in three Republicans saying the war has contributed to U.S. security (65 percent), while most Democrats say it has not and independents split more evenly.

Theuptick in positive views of the Afghan war overall comes after a pivotal year that saw a drawdown in NATO forces, the election of President Ashraf Ghani and the signing by Afghan officials of a bilateral security agreement allowing U.S. and NATO forces to remain in the country. The shift also follows months of U.S. military efforts to prevent Iraq from being overrun by Islamic State militants, emboldening critics who say the Obama administration withdrew hastily from a war he promised to end.

Last year also sawthe Obama administration release five Guantanamo Bay detainees in a prisoner swap for Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who left his post in Afghanistan in 2009. A July Post-ABC poll found 39 percent approved of the exchange, while 51 percent disapproved.

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Post-ABC poll: Support for Afghanistan war rises as combat mission ends

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"It's all a matter of political will."

I met the man who whispered those words to me -- let's call him Tom -- in Kuwait during the first Gulf War. I suspected he was CIA but never asked.

Then in Marja, Afghanistan, in 2010, when I was following the U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan, Karl Eikenberry, as he took a tour, I was surprised to see Tom outside a small tent. The Marines had just won a hard fought battle here. The surge had just started. Thousands of troops were flooding into Afghanistan.

I didn't stop to say hello to Tom and he didn't acknowledge me. But as I followed the carefully orchestrated media tour he evidently snuck up behind me. He leaned in and whispered those seven words, "It's all a matter of political will."

I turned toward him and he was gone -- just like we were in a spy movie or cartoon -- there he was and then he wasn't.

At the time I thought he was referring to the Afghan government. The Marines were trying to get a new force, the Afghan National Civil Order Police (ANCOP), to take over in Marja.

I've been thinking about that meeting -- or non-meeting -- the past few days. I think CIA Tom was referring to us, not the Afghans and not the U.S. -- but us. You and me.

The United States ended combat operations in Afghanistan last week. There was the usual flag lowering handover ceremony in Kabul. A few words, handshakes and it was done. The Afghans take over. Virtually no network news coverage and very little from my print colleagues either. Few noticed or even marked the end of America's longest war. Maybe it's because most of us didn't feel it -- we borrowed to finance the war and only 1 percent of us actually fight.

Massoud Hossaini/AP Photo

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War or No War, Winning in Afghanistan 'a Matter of Political Will'

Published January 05, 2015

Jan. 1, 2015: Afghan President Ashraf Ghani speaks during a ceremony marking the completion of security transition to Afghan security forces in Kabul. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul)

Afghanistan's president has suggested that the U.S. "re-examine" its plan to withdraw all of the American-led coalition troops from the country by the end of 2016.

"Deadlines concentrate the mind. But deadlines should not be dogmas," Ashraf Ghani told CBS' "60 Minutes" in an interview that aired Sunday evening.

"If both parties, or, in this case, multiple partners, have done their best to achieve the objectives and progress is very real, then there should be willingness to re-examine a deadline," he added.

When asked if he had made his view clear to President Barack Obama, Ghani said "President Obama knows me. We don't need to tell each other."

There was no immediate response from the White House, State Department, or Pentagon to Ghani's remarks Sunday night.

The U.S. and its NATO allies marked the formal end of the U.S. combat mission in Afghanistan last week. On Thursday, 13,500 soldiers of the International Security Assistance Force, almost 11,000 of them American, transitioned to a supporting role for Afghanistan's military.

The handover of primary responsibility for battling the Taliban represents the ultimate test for the 350,000 strong Afghan army. Critics have long questioned the local troops' morale, discipline, and competence in the face of Taliban attacks. According to a United Nations report, 2014 was the deadliest year on record for non-combatants in Afghanistan, with at least 3,188 civilians killed in the intensifying war. By comparison, at least 4,600 members of the Afghan security forces were killed by fighting last year.

Ghani also told CBS that he was concerned about the possibility that Islamic State fighters could make their way to Afghanistan. However, that concern was refuted by ISAF commander Gen. John Campbell, who said that "This is not Iraq. I don't see [Islamic State] coming into Afghanistan like they did into Iraq. The Afghan Security Forces would not allow that."

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PULLED BACK IN? Afghan leader suggests US 're-examine' troop pullout

Afghan UN Amb. Tanin discuss 2014 in Afghanistan VOA Pashto
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By: VoA Pashto

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Afghan UN Amb. Tanin discuss 2014 in Afghanistan VOA Pashto - Video