According to various generals and to some politicians, the war in Afghanistan will continue for several years, until we have 'won'.
Won what? Will our soldiers have stopped the opium production? Will they have provided education for girls and stopped Afghans beating their wives? Will Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda be killed? Will terrorism be stopped?
Have we forgotten that we
couldn't win a war against the Afghans in the nineteenth century, nor the Russians (with 30,000 dead) in the twentieth century? Have we overlooked the fact that we and the USA provided weapons for the Taliban to fight the Russians? What hypocrisy.
If the war continues for, say, another four years, and the deaths are about one per day, according to my arithmetic that is another 1,500 deaths and no doubt up to 10,000 maimings of our soldiers.
Why do our soldiers go out on patrol? To provide target practice for the Taliban? Why do our soldiers travel in insufficiently armoured vehicles? To have their legs blown off by the Taliban bombs?
Mr Milliband appears to be young and fit. May I suggest that he joins a patrol for a few months, with a more than one in ten chance of death.
He'd be more use there than as a Foreign Secretary. Add in stupid Ainsworth and sanctimonious Brown, and the lads would soon be brought home, and not in coffins!
The truth is, as in most wars, it suits the politicians, so that they may grieve in a suitably grave manner to impress us. "Our soldiers died for their country." Rubbish! Our soldiers are being killed to prop up Karzai.
Dr D Halliday, Horsforth.