No one wants to face reality and admit the Taliban are winning (Taliban win over locals at the gates of Kabul, World, last week). The international community has failed the Afghans.

There must be a doubling of troops in the conflict areas, the German military must step out of their non-combat role and join the fighting, and other Nato members must step up to the challenge. Taliban financing through opium trafficking can be dealt with by allowing Afghan farmers to grow the opium poppy for the medicine morphine.

Otherwise, the Taliban and their al-Qaeda cousins will again have an unchallenged geopolitical home to operate from, and the international community will again have abandoned our Afghan brothers and sisters to the cruelty of life under Taliban rule.


Norine MacDonald QCbr> President and lead field researcher,
ICOS


http://www.guardian.co.uk/theobserver/2008/aug/31/5