President George W. Bush's decision to divert troops from their mission dismantling the Taliban in Afghanistan and redeploy them for his invasion of Iraq has allowed the terrorist organization to regroup to the point that it is more powerful than before the September 11, 2001, attacks five years ago.

"Taliban forces now operate freely within Afghan borders without fear of U.S. or U.N. troops and now controls regions previously thought free from the organization's control," says a classified Pentagon memo. "Their ability to regroup is directly related to the decision to withdraw forces that were deemed necessary to complete the mission."

Military professionals who have seen the memo sneer and refer to it as "Bush and (Defense Secretary Donald) Rumsfeld's latest mission unaccomplished FUBAR."

"Bush and Rumsfeld fuck up everything they touch," says an angry career military officer who recently returned from Afghanistan. "Five years later, we're right back where we started."

As the fifth anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon approaches, disgruntled military professionals say Bush's failed policies in both Iraq and Afghanistan have left the country more vulnerable with more enemies than in 2001.

A CBS news crew in Afghanistan found evidence that supports those conclusions.

Nearly five years after U.S. forces defeated the Taliban and scattered the al Qaeda terrorists they were protecting, the Taliban and their terror tactics are back.

This year in Afghanistan, roadside bombings are up 30 percent. Suicide bombings are up 100 percent and more than 100 U.S. and NATO troops have been killed. In response, the allies have launched a counter-offensive against the Taliban, killing as many as 60 on Tuesday alone.

CBS News chief foreign correspondent Lara Logan obtained unprecedented access to Taliban fighters in one of their new strongholds in Ghazni province. Here is her exclusive report:

Our tense journey into Taliban territory followed six months of negotiations with their commanders. Their nervous liaison insisted I cover everything but my eyes.

As we got closer, these two armed Taliban fighters arrived to "escort" us along the dirt roads through several villages. We were in Ghazni, just two hours south of the Afghan capital of Kabul.

We couldn't film openly, and for the last part of the journey, we were ordered to walk until we finally came upon more than 100 Taliban fighters - America's enemy - brazenly flaunting their weapons in broad daylight.

Men of all ages, many trained over the border inside Pakistan, out of reach of U.S. forces, where the Taliban has been able to reorganize and rearm.

Their senior commander defiantly declared them stronger and more popular than they were before the U.S. invasion.

"Before this war American forces were our friends," Ahmad Rahim, the Taliban regional commander, told Logan. "But now, after this occupation and their barbaric cruelty, we are no longer with them."

To get out of Taliban-controlled areas, you have to travel on roads they have mined, so we were given an escort to navigate around the deadly bombs.

Karl Eikenberry, the top U.S. general in Afghanistan, admits Ghazni is one of the worst spots in a Taliban resurgence that's made this past year the bloodiest ever for U.S. forces.

"You do have areas of Afghanistan right now, in particular provinces in the south, and in certain districts where Taliban is greater than it was last year," Eikenberry said. "It's a hard enemy that we're up against, an enemy that doesn't know borders."

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