We won't win Afghan war, admits UK commander

Published on Sunday 5 October 2008 22:44

THE public should not expect "a decisive military victory" in Afghanistan, Britain's most senior military commander in the country warned yesterday.

Brigadier Mark Carleton-Smith said the aim was to reduce the uprising to a level at which it could be managed by the Afghan army, and he made clear that this could involve talking to the Taleban.

It was necessary to "lower our expectations" and accept it would be unrealistic to expect multinational forces to entirely rid Afghanistan of armed groups, he suggested.

Brigadier Carleton-Smith, the commander of 16 Air Assault Brigade, which has just completed its second tour of Afghanistan, said his forces had "taken the sting out of the Taleban for 2008".

But he went on: "We're not going to win this war. It's about reducing it to a manageable level of insurgency that's not a strategic threat and can be managed by the Afghan army."

He said the aim should be to change the nature of the debate in Afghanistan, so disputes were settled by negotiation, not violence.

"If the Taleban 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," he said.