Afghan war unwinnable, says UK commander

Published on Sunday 5 October 2008 01:29

THE war against the Taliban cannot be won and the country should prepare for a deal, Britain's most senior military commander in Afghanistan warned last night.

Brigadier Mark Carleton-Smith, commander of 16 Air Assault Brigade, said it was necessary to "lower our expectations". He added that the challenge was about reducing the conflict to a manageable level of insurgency that is not a strategic threat and can be managed by the Afghan army.

Carleton-Smith's bleak assessment followed the leak of a memo from a diplomat who claimed that the British ambassador in Kabul had told him the current strategy was "doomed to fail".

The Brigadier told a newspaper: "We may well leave with there still being a low but steady ebb of rural insurgency… I don't think we should expect that when we go there won't be roaming bands of armed men in this part of the world. That would be unrealistic and probably incredible."

Carleton-Smith said the sting had been taken out of the Taliban this year, but pointed out his brigade had suffered heavy losses with 32 dead and 170 injured.

He said: "We want to change the nature of the debate from one where disputes are settled through the barrel of the gun to one where it is done through negotiations.

"If the Taliban were prepared to sit on the other side of the table and talk about a political settlement, then that's precisely the sort of progress that concludes insurgencies like this."

Last week Gulab Mangal, the governor of Helmand, said the Taliban controlled more than half the province.