Pakistani militants visit the headquarters of their leader Menghal Bagh which was bombed by government forces at a troubled area of Bara Akakheil in Pakistan's tribal area of Khyber Sunday. Paramilitary troops were able to return to their abandoned posts in part of the Khyber region Sunday as Pakistani forces widened their offensive against local militants in the volatile tribal area along the border with Afghanistan, an official said.

The U.S. military has been in Afghanistan since shortly after 9/11/2001 – but are we on the right track?

Three Democrats – Will Shafroth, Jared Polis and Joan Fitz-Gerald – are running in 2008 for the party’s nomination in Colorado’s 2nd Congressional District. The three will face off in the Aug. 12 primary, and the winner will go up against Republican Scott Starin and Bill Hammons from the Unity Party of America in the Nov. 4 general election.

The Daily is running in its print version a weekly series of Democratic candidate answers to topical questions, and this week’s question is:

Should the U.S. still be in Afghanistan, and why or why not? If so, what would some of your objectives for a successful mission be?

Due to print space constraints, we are not running responses in the paper from the candidates who are not in the primary, but we will run responses received from Starin and Hammons on our Web site, www.coloradodaily.com.

For much more information about the candidates, visit the Web sites for: Polis at www.polisforcongress.com; Fitz-Gerald at www.joanfitz-gerald.com; Shafroth at www.shafrothforcongress.com; Starin at www.starinforcongress.com; and Hammons at www.bill-for-congress.us.

Contact Richard Valenty about this story at (303) 443-6272 ext. 126, or valenty@coloradodaily.com.