So, according to our man in Kabul, Britain can expect to be entangled in Afghanistan for the next 30 years. Leaving aside the hopelessly optimistic spin (with all the might of the Red Army, the Soviet Union couldn’t last a decade in the same place), who the hell will benefit from that?

It doesn’t take a diplomatic expert to conclude that even two more years of the Brits in Afghanistan will result in more hatred heaped on the British worldwide, more dead soldiers and civilians on both sides.

The lesson to draw from Iraq and Afghanistan is that you can’t engineer a revolution. The only “regime changes” that stick are the ones brought about when that country’s people are so utterly sick of violence and injustice that the do it for themselves. So if the Afghans want to stick to their ancient system of tribal rule and a social code that belongs in the Dark Ages, let ‘em.

Perhaps someday, there’ll be enough enlightened free-thinkers in that region to bring about true democracy and universal suffrage. But until there are, the only alternative appears to a lethal, imperialistic quagmire.