The death toll for British troops in the country hit 300 on Monday, providing further ammunition for critics of the war who question how the government can justify the cost in blood and money given the dearth of tangible progress.
Politicians say the war is vital for Britain's security, but analysts say the main reason the country will fight on is to safeguard ties to the United States, and perhaps salvage a semblance of success to allow its troops to leave with pride.
Some analysts say Britain's involvement in the war may even make it less secure, by increasing the risk of an attack by radicalized Muslims angry at what they see as a war on Islam.
The picturesque town of Wootton Bassett in the southwest is close to an airbase where soldiers' bodies are repatriated. It has seen a spike in the number of funeral processions passing through in the last year.
Last week, residents and ageing ex-servicemen in regimental dress prepared to pay respect to two more war dead.
"Nobody knows why we got involved and what the end result should be. It seems the more young men we send, the more we get bodies back in bags," said town resident and pensioner Linda Treasure, 61, who attends most of the funeral processions.
Last year was the deadliest by far for NATO-led Western forces in Afghanistan, who are battling Al-Qaeda-allied Taleban insurgents and training Afghan security forces.
On a visit to Afghanistan this month, British Prime Minister David Cameron showed a new more realistic approach to the war, making clear that national security aims had priority over lofty goals like democracy building and education for Afghan girls.
"The belief in creating real progress, democracy, in Afghanistan, is now virtually dead. The point is to simply maintain the American alliance and to try and get out eventually without the humiliation of an outright Taleban victory," said Anatol Lieven of King's College London's war studies department.
 
AFGHANISTAN PESSIMISM
Defense Secretary Liam Fox last week told a think tank that the government needed to "find the language to persuade the British people to stick with us," but his message that the Afghan war is vital for Britain's security is convincing few.
That argument is "debatable," former British intelligence official Richard Barrett told Reuters, describing Cameron's claim that Al-Qaeda would return if Britain withdrew as "contentious."
Polls over the past year have shown a majority of Britons have a negative view of the mission, a stance fueled by downbeat media reports and confirmed in street interviews.
A major, sudden loss of life among British troops could test Britain's resolve, especially as the UK's new coalition government includes the dovish Liberal Democrats.
Many Britons are growing alarmed at the rising body count as well as the massive costs of a war at a time when the country is facing severe spending cuts to tackle a big budget deficit.
"We have to make cutbacks. Does anyone ask how much it costs us to be out there?" said Pat Manley, 74, a former serviceman at a parade in east London last week to welcome soldiers home.
"I hope Cameron has got the balls to bring the troops back."
Analysts believe, however, that London is unlikely to risk its close ties to Washington by drawing down its 9,500 troops before the United States begins withdrawing its own soldiers.
President Barack Obama, battling growing discontent with the conflict at hom, has said that will start in July 2011..
"We'll be there as long as the Americans are there quite frankly," said independent defense analyst Paul Beaver. "It's all part our bigger relationship."
 
RADICAL MUSLIMS
At the London parade, shaven-headed right-wingers straining at a police cordon shouted abuse at Muslims protesting against Britain's involvement in Afghanistan.
Pelted with eggs, the group — calling themselves Muslims Against Crusades — also used inflammatory language, waving placards comparing troops parading by to "Hitler's henchmen."
Ironically, both sides want British soldiers out.
"I would rather our troops were brought home ... The public is seeing no headway and is seeing a lot of dead bodies," said Jack, an organizer from the English Defense League, a far-right group that says it campaigns against Muslim extremism.
The British presence in Afghanistan risks radicalising some Muslims who could launch an attack in the UK, some analysts say, following bombings in London by a group of four Muslim Britons that killed 52 people in 2005.
"As long as you're in places like Afghanistan, killing innocent people, you're going to see a terrorist threat in the UK," said Abu Yahya, 27, a Muslim protester at the