General Patraeus

This widely respected general is here for talks and has been to Downing Street. No doubt the tragic death of Linda Norgrove was discussed. No doubt too each side bolstered the other’s confidence that Afghanistan was going according to plan. Clearly it is not.

Mark Sedwill, Nato’s senior diplomat in Afghanistan was interviewed on the Today programme this morning. He was eloquent and logical as well as unreal and unconvincing about Nato’s prospects of creating the kind of country envisaged when this ridiculous and costly adventure began so many years ago. It has now been going on almost as long as WWI and WWII put together.

There is talk of ‘contacts’ with the Taliban going on right now. The plain truth is that Afghanistan will become what the Afghans, not Nato, want it to be. We really do need to face up to the fact that these resilient tribal people know that the Karzai government is totally corrupt, its so called security force is unreliable and may well switch sides and the police are entirely dishonest. Against this ghastly display, the austere but efficient Taliban have quite a shine. Nato’s failure is that it has not been able to give birth to a credible alternative. Now it is much, much too late.