Afghanistan is NOT a country. It is an area containing tribes / families with local power dating back as far as trading and travelling started. These people have their own rules and culture and is a complete Mis-Match to so called Western Democracy. Let the indigenous people look after their own selves. Western Politicians can think they know it all "How the West was Won" syndrome.
This is Not an Area for the West ...unless the intention is to start yet another Crusade, results being not much different from previous "Adventures".
Solution PULL ALL FORCES / AID out...Repel to Borders. Korea,Vietnam,Aden..etc come to mind.
My two cents worth

Parma ham and wine lists!? What magnificent achievement that is?!
What is thousands and thousands dead and few billions here and there comparing to this?!
Political elite that organizes invasion of Muslim countries is the very same elite that supports constant destruction of European Christian civilization. They do not care about dead or about future of Europe but they do care about Parma ham and good wines. That’s for sure.
Unfortunately, there is now only one solution to this. More troops, more dead, more Muslims in Europe, more destruction of Europe, its culture and its nations … until revolution! Genuine European nations must take their destiny in their own hands, regain sovereignty of their countries and wipe out the above mentioned elite together with their insane ideology.
Muslim countries should and must remain Muslim. In the same way as Europe should remain Christian and white. Those who try to change that risk a war on unimaginable scale.
They do not allow taking photographs or wearing “western clothes”?! So, what? What is wrong with that? And what it has to do with Christian Europe?

Positive gains, but I'm not sure if the ones mentioned are the ones that should be a priority.
:
"The gunning down of five British soldiers by a Taliban follower who had infiltrated the ranks of the police in southern Helmand province highlights the increasing complexity of the war here." How does one fight such a cynical, barbaric mindset?
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The tone of the article is one of disappointment, that not enough has changed on the ground after all the sacrifices. And the people pulling the strings of influence in Afghanistan don't seem to be doing the people of Afghanistan any good (one step forward, two steps back in corruption).
:
"Returning to Kabul after a seven-year gap, it was hard to believe that the Islamists sent packing by US-led forces and Afghanistan's motley Northern Alliance in 2001 are once more a source of fear for those in the capital." The thing is, how does one fight a repressive mindset like the Talibaban? "Their summary of events when a run-off election was cancelled and Hamid Karzai was re-elected president after a fraud-riddled first round, was a sophisticated deconstruction of Western influence that belied their erstwhile reputation as uneducated thugs." All the corruption that has come to light does is give the repressive Taliban a veneer of legitimacy, but the repressive regime they practise is too great to contemplate coming into power once more. It's hard enough fighting the people in positions of influence now, eg. the law that effectively allowed rape in marriage that had to be fought.

Other commentators have compared life in Kabul in 1982 (which apparently quite westernized) with today and have concluded that there is still a long way to go to get back to that level. As regards democracy, particularly with regards to women, this is a pipedream as far as the rural and traibal areas are concerned. Even if the ballot is secret, their minds will follow what tribal elders think. This makes true democracy impossible at present. People seem to forget that the Taleban were successful because they gathered support from disgruntled people, even if not everyone liked all their policies. No we have the spectacle of Western troops walking through poppy fields, effective protecting the raw material for the drugs that ruin peoples lives in the west.

Can someone explain as to why we didn't send the ministry of agriculture rather than the ministry of defense
to Afghanistan this time. (or do we actually believe the Taliban have nothing to do with the Afghan branch of the NFU). It would seem to be a lot cheeper to reintroduce laudanum and various other related products to the supermarket shelves back in Blighty.
Grab the entrepreneurial center as it where, like we did in China when we where last, coincidentally also completely up the Kiber!.
Fairfax
PS When presented with a judgement on the lesser of two evils a wise man knows exactly which side his bread is butter'd.
PPS Cleaning up the Afghanistani system sort of negates the whole of Afghanistan's proud historic culture and raison d'être, Why is no one being wise or better still pragmatic?.
Look Gordon if the Russians can do it, what's up with new Labour?.
Go on! Get out of it!, put that away laddie you'll have some ones eye out!.
He will never learn you know.

Ah. Kabul. Visited and seen by western eyes on a short safe journalistic excursion to dip his feet into real life inbetween cappucinos at Starbuks or Cafe Nero. What other eyes and ears and wisdom do we have or need to understand the rest of the world?

Patronising @#$%. I am sure you got patronisied back and told a load of @#$%, but never noticed it. Better to play the white man's game and tell him what he wants. he just gets confused and upset if you don't. Lets wind him up.

One Ammendment to Post #5 Springvalestudios: Yup the Ministry of Agriculture is THE Best option but their labourers should be the whole (650+)Politicians to "Gather In The Harvest". A good days work in the Poppy fields might bring their sniffing senses back to reality. Of course there would be no Military protection...why need to?....when "Not a Single Shot has been fired"....duh.
The so called Policy makers should have started in a Brewery....they'd still be in there ..@#$%in and sober.
Just a thought the TWO Opium wars with China (around 1880-1890 I think) seems to smack a bit of Hypocrisy.If I remember correctly Opium was a commodity that the West wanted !. OK so the French were smashed out their skull with Absinthe but apparently it was good for French Artists / Poets (1750's approx).
So now the Government is side-tracking on Global and Climate issues ! What wars? what expenses? what's a Policy?....Duh. What Kyhber?.

In the eyes of most Afghans,what is seen is not the liberating armies of the West,but a bunch of spiteful madmen killing FLORISTS.It's certainly not THEIR fault that £50 worth of their produce goes for £30,000+ elsewhere.OUR society has created this situation.Killing THEM is not the remedy.The government has shown the world that it's drug policy isn't built on any sort of scientific fact or reason;ergo-killing all the drug users HERE is where the answer to the Afghan problem lies.(A government spokesperson said)

we should deploy pollice forces from all countries to police the country, and maybe hand back that role in 10 years

Speaking from experience, you have to start as you mean to continue, strong foundations need to be laid down, not only in the war zones but across all institutions. Alot of good work is being done in Afghanistan but as usual the bad always disheartens the good.
Too often political decisions are taken solely on the basis of economic analysis, it is obvious that decisions taken purely for financial gain will always end in tears for the folk on the ground.
The religion of the modern world has been centered around banking and is enmeshed with Christianity, like a suppurating wound stuck to it's gauze dressing.
Islam has been on a collision course with multiculturalism since its inception and this last great battle to come has been heavily prophesied for centuries.
Afghanistan is a political crossroads, and if the natives had not converted to Islam they would now be genetically extinct. Convert or die they say, pay your alms to the mosques or be killed. Islam is currently responsible for the proliferation of guns across the African continent and the execution of white land owners there. Did you know that Mugabe is infact Muslim?
I believe that Islam is more powerful and more influential than many people realise and is guilty of many crimes which have yet to be cast up before global justice.
We have no choice but to chase militant Islam into their heartlands, because they would use our indolence against us if we didn't. I can understand how terrifying it is for exiled muslims who have fled into the west, but how can they be trusted? How many more practising muslims living and working alongside westerners are going to turn rogue?
If I were a Muslim living in the West, I would carefully choose a new religion or return to my Islamic motherland but I would not try to balance Islam with a western lifestyle and the loyalty it demands. My chosen religion would be Zoroastrianism, sidelined and stamped out by Islam over the last thousand years, the teachings of Zoroaster were at the heart of the Persian civilisation. The true face of the East.
I think that the west should support the rebuilding of Zoroastrianism to provide sanctury for moderate muslims who have fled the fascism and corruption inherant in Islamic society.
I think it is time that the West admitted that we are at war with Islam, because Islam is at war with us and always has been. After a thousand years of waiting for these fellas to calm down and stop persecuting the rest of humanity, perhaps the powers that be are fed up waiting.
The Islamic lifestyle seems to breed malcontents, seeking to project their frustrations onto those who are not given the chance to argue their case in defense. If it is not the fault of Jews, then it is the fault of Hindus or Christians, but never ever the fault of Islam according to the Koran.
"By their actions they (disciples of deception) shall be known".