... When can we finally leave Afghanistan?

Peace talks have stalled ... doubts remain over the army which will take over when the West leaves ... will the timetable for withdrawal hold?

LAST week, it was business as usual in Afghanistan. There was the customary carnage – five civilians killed in the east of the country, eight women and two children killed and at least two men wounded when their minibus hit a roadside bomb. In response the Taliban said that it would use “every possible tactic” to inflict casualties on Afghan and US-led forces. Meanwhile, the Taliban’s so-called “embassy” compound in Doha lies empty.

It should have been hosting peace talks with the Afghan government and the West but that has proved to be another false trail in this long-running 12-yearold war. Following a decision taken by President Hamid Karzai to boycott the meeting for the time being, the latest efforts to end the conflict are hanging in the balance.

Yesterday, Nato’s deputy commander in Afghanistan, General Nick Carter, added to the debate when he admitted to a British newspaper that it would have made sense to include the Taliban in talks in 2002 when they were ousted from power. If the West had been sensible and had the benefit of hindsight, he said, “we might have spotted that a final political solution to what started in 2001, from our perspective, would have involved getting all Afghans to sit at the table and talk about their future”.

All this has ramifications for the Western powers which are currently in Afghanistan and are about to start withdrawing their forces next year. The British Army, in particular, has no wish to remain longer than necessary. Already things are slowing down in Helmand province. British infantry battalions no longer patrol as aggressively as