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David Miliband's speech outlining a dual-track political and military strategy in Afghanistan is welcome - and long overdue.
The Foreign Secretary yesterday outlined how the Afghan government and international forces in the country should try to break the Taliban from within, through a programme of "reintegration and reconciliation" for its "moderate" elements, those conservative Pashtun tribesmen who have not been brainwashed to believe in global jihad.
The question is whether it will be enough, coming as it does in a month when Britain has already lost 20 soldiers - most of them in Operation Panther's Claw, undertaken to cleanse Helmand of the Taliban before the all-important presidential elections on 20 August.
Gordon Brown may have declared Panther's Claw complete yesterday but the war in Afghanistan is far from over.
Miliband's speech follows intensive discussions between the Foreign Secretary, the US Special Representative Richard Holbrooke and the UK Special Envoy for Afghanistan-Pakistan, Sir Sherard Cowper Coles.
Britain has long urged the Americans to beef up the Afghan government's powers to talk to moderate elements of the Taliban - something British commanders have already been doing at a local level in Helmand.
The need for such a dialogue met with little response from the Bush administration but President Obama has been more receptive.
Miliband has called for "effective grassroots initiatives to offer an alternative to fight or flight for the foot soldiers" of the Taliban.
In fact, President Hamid Karzai has had such an initiative going since 2005, but it has lacked money and support from the US and Nato. Now that may change.
What Miliband is proposing will require planning, funding and trained personnel for the Afghan government, plus an overarching mechanism from the international community to make sure that those Taliban who "come in" are not harassed or jailed and are provided with education and jobs.
The danger is that this shift of strategy comes too late, after years of missed opportunities.
Most important was the waste of resources by President George W Bush on Iraq instead of focusing on rebuilding Afghanistan between 2001 and 2004, when the country was at peace and the Afghans welcomed foreign forces. Unfortunately, Tony Blair was complicit in that folly.
After the Taliban were defeated in 2001, Britain was a key player in advising the Americans, who had little idea of what to do next.
It was the British army and General John McColl who helped organise and then lead the first peacekeeping force for Kabul.
But Blair's unquestioning support for Bush over Iraq, and his refusal to outline a clear strategy for Afghanistan when British forces redeployed there in 2005, left British troops almost helpless.
The army had no idea what its mission was or what it was supposed to achieve. There was a constant unresolved battle between 10 Downing Street, the Ministry of Defence and the Foreign Office. Blair showed little interest and gave no direction.
Yet in 2005, 5,700 British troops arrived in Helmand where foreign forces had not penetrated before, where intelligence about the adversary was non-existent and where the Taliban had rebuilt their support since 2001 and were ready to defend their grip on the drugs trade.
British troops were already overstretched and in Helmand were under-armed, poorly equipped and without helicopters.
Unable to seize and hold territory because of a lack of numbers, unable to launch proper offensives because of a lack of equipment, the army was forced to muddle through.
But the most critical factor was that the Government never spelled out the truth of what the war entails - nor for that matter has any other government in Europe.
Educating the public as to why Afghanistan is important to global security is vital, but you cannot do it through mere spin control.
The truth is this. Today a complex and expanded mixture of al Qaeda, the Taliban in Pakistan and Afghanistan, Central Asian militants and various Pakistani Punjabi and Kashmiri groups are all working together - and their number one target in the world is not the US but Britain.
Britain is still the safest place in the West to maintain underground contacts, safe houses, logistics and all the paraphernalia that terrorist groups need to spread into other parts of Europe and eventually the US.
It must be said that despite other failings, Gordon Brown and his Government have done a far better job of explaining this and being honest about the war than Blair ever did.
Brown has spent more on the military, providing better armoured vehicles, sending more helicopters and increasing the number of troops to nearly 9,000.
The army still needs more, especially helicopters, but unless there is going to be a large increase in defence expenditure - unlikely, given the state of the public finances - Brown has little room to manoeuvre.
The Prime Minister has also done some plain talking with Pakistan, something Bush and Blair absolutely refused to do.
The fact that the Afghan Taliban leaders are based in Pakistan and have been allowed to re-arm, recruit and organise their logistics from there for the past eight years, courtesy of the Pakistani army's Interservices Intelligence, has been a major contributing factor to the British army's inability to pacify Helmand.
The real tragedy is that the US surge and President Obama's commitment to rebuild Afghanistan has come so late - eight years after it should have happened. Bush should have prepared the ground for this surge last year but did nothing.
Bush should also have worked with the UN and the Afghan government and parliament last year to delay the presidential elections.
For most of this year nobody has been able to focus on long-term planning for Afghanistan because all the actors are obsessed with getting through the elections.
Afghanistan has seen terrible blunders in the past eight years but the real follies have been at home: Britain's leaders have failed to level with the public or to provide their soldiers with the wherewithal to win.
We must hope that ministers now have the courage to follow the honesty of Miliband's speech, making the tough case that Britain and its allies should start talking to the enemy. For the price of failure could be high indeed.
Ahmed Rashid's Descent into Chaos: The World's Most Unstable Region and the Threat to Global Security, is now out in paperback, published by Penguin.
Reader views (18)
N.Hussain,People ..read your history.How many times has Britain been invaded by Islamic Countries?answer,never.Not a single or jointly any Muslim country has the power to invade Britain.If they had we would have been invade long time back. How many Muslims countries have been invaded by Britain/America? answer,many.Who do you think helped the Muslims in Balkans?It is Muslim countries own doing which gets us involved in it.Saudi,Egypt,Jordan are all willing to have Israel destroy Iranian Nuclear facilities.Talking to Taliban would be like talking to a wall.
- Surj, london, 08/08/2009 22:47
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We should talk to the Taliban only when they agree that all adult males must cover up at all times and only leave the house when escorted by a female member of their family. Happy with this regime Ashmed? Try it out in London? Given that the requirement in the Qu'ran is that men and women both dress 'modestly'. No dress codes.
- Dectora, London UK, 04/08/2009 14:31
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Talk to the Taliban,you would be extremely naive to do that,Isn't that what the Government of Pakistan did!There is only one reason i would like to be prime minister or president of the USA as that position would enable me to use chemical and biological weapons against the misogynist,racist,homophobic. child abusers, drug pushing land stealing tribal ignorant miserable,music loathing fascist called the Taliban.No civilised person should deal with such filth,just as no civilised person should take tea with Brady or Myra Hindley,use any means necessary to liquidate every last one of this subhuman sect.
- Kev, London-UK, 28/07/2009 14:38
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If we want peace we should destroy the Taliban utterley, then withdraw from the benighted hell hole.
- Kerry, Purley, 28/07/2009 13:52
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To N Hussain, the biggest murderers of muslims are other muslims, so the historical facts speak for themselves. It continues today with the slaughter in Darfur, shhh muslims do not like the fact that they are committing genocide and then there are the wars between Iraq and Iran, millions killed, and civil unrest in Pakistan which really is a failed state if ever there was one. As for invasion well quite America and Britain have never been invaded basically because the muslims are incapable of invading us, instead they are coming to our countries many turning out to be the enemy within.
As for Afghanistan it was a country run by the most barbaric and repressive regime on the planet otherwise know as the Taliban, so I think the fact that 45 decent and democratic nations are today policing Afghanistan. The problem was that no muslim state could clean up their dirty work so we have to do it for them. As for Iraq I suppose you thought Saddam Hussain was a saint.
- Richard, Nottingham, 28/07/2009 13:45
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People.. read your history. How many times has britain been invaded by islamic countries? answer: never.
How many muslim countries have been invaded by Britain and America? answer: Many. Each time the invasion was based on a pack of lies (WMD etc) that are soon forgotten and nobody is ever prosecuted. I think you need to get out of other peoples countries as they don't want your guns there. Have a good day.
- N Hussain, newcastle, UK, 28/07/2009 12:59
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Some clever PR would be far more effective> Taliban are all men with flamboyant facial hair, they are undoubtedly mysogynists, they only like the company of other men, dress in womens clothing and like to groom boys to join their way of life. If we kept highlighting that they are essentially gay, the numbers wanting to join might drop fast!
- Jon, london, 28/07/2009 12:33
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Let me tell you how the talks will go, it will save a lot of money and spin by the politicians.
British spokesman: "We are in Afghanistan to help the population, we seek peace and to improve peoples lives"
Taliban: "You are infidels, get out of the country or we will keeel you"
British spokesperson: "We are ready to assist an elected government in Afghanistan, we will broker a partnership between all parties, of which can be a part as long as you realise it will mean the laying down of arms and a peaceful future"
Taliban: "You are infidels, get out of the country or we will keeel you"
British spokesman: " We understand how this might not fit in totally with your ideology and intentions for this country and that you may need to re-think some of your subversive ways and terrorist methods, but we've committed a lot of time and resources to this, what do you say?"
Taliban: "You are infidels, get out of the country or we will keeel you".
Motto - To achieve 'peace' with Taliban, or AlQaeda or whatever similar group you will have to ban Islam and the single aim of Islam. It is impossible to reason and reach a compromise. Impossible. Impossible. History proves that, and future history will confirm it.
- Chris Williams, Cardiff, 28/07/2009 11:47
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Northern Ireland proved that terrorism works.
They just need to tidy up their politicaal-arm and get suited up with plenty of cash,etc in the right pockets.
Then hey presto - reformed gunmen in political power. Isn't diplomacy wonderful!
- Jimmytwotimes, Tower of London, 28/07/2009 11:35
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yes we do have to talk . them and us. we should have started talking when the twin towers were hit we need to find out why they are so angry we have been on the winning side for so long we have stopped thinking about how we got there we may not like their religeous views but lots of peoples of the world did not like the christian doctrin that was forced on them (by us) we should learn from the history of the world and have some real debate stop the fighting stop taking advantage of our innocent youth and sending them proudly to their early deaths i cry for them all and the afghanis we could be living in such a beautiful world it is still the same garden of eden lets turn our hands to the good of it and stop these dreadful weapon games personly i believe they are angry because they see how greedy and complacent we are... and and
- Granny, london england, 28/07/2009 11:22
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Homayra, remedial english for you, quickly followed by a crash course in world poitics. Werent you saying the same thing about Iraq? Proved wrong there werent you? Whats next 'America iz trying to takes over the Isle of Wight'. Get a grip.
I agree with Dave on this one. We dont talk to people who drug kids to be suicide bombers, nor should we.
- Lupo, London, 28/07/2009 11:12
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hate to have to go on about this, but if the might of the soviet union couldnt defeat these cia trained loonies in their own back yard in the 80s, how does this communist-esque labour government except to beat them with a few thousand poorly equipt troops, or dupes as i call them. Why dupes? because they've been duped into believing they're out their for one reason when in fact the actual agenda is entirely something else. Contrary to mass media propaganda you can criticise a war and whilst supporting the troops.
- Simon Lomax, warrington, uk, 28/07/2009 11:08
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Farcical; and our troops are dying for just what exactly? We should get out of there and kick out of OUR country those who wish to harm us.
- Jules_London, london, 28/07/2009 11:03
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BAN the Taliban
- Kevin Coley, Wolverhampton, 28/07/2009 10:58
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America is playing with all poor countries..
hate america.
they are taking advantage of the war dat is between afghans and dey r trying to take over afghanistan..
- Homayra, birmingham, 28/07/2009 10:16
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Fantastic, just like we negotiated with the Nazis!
Surely the guns should be doing the talking.
When can we vote these traitors out?
- Dave, London, 28/07/2009 10:01
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What the hell is he playing at, talking to the Taliban! They have bombed, killed, murdered yet he wants to talk to them............. We do so need a new Government in place.
The troops need more equipment, better equipment, and as this will cost money, he wants to talk to the taliban and bring the fight to our shores! NOT ON!
- Wazzarsa, UK, 28/07/2009 09:53
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These 'moderate taliban'. Are they the ones that only want us all only slightly dead for our 'sinful ways'? Are they the ones who only support terrorists who are fluffy and cuddly? Are they the tolerant one's who don't go off on one if a check in girl wears a crucifix? Would they be the one's who think Israel is a pretty cool place full of funky people?
Love to know how this distinction is made.
- Ethan, UK, 28/07/2009 09:50
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