UK Commander Issues Afghan Warning

Monday, October 6, 2008 at 1:15 am

UK Commander Issues Afghan Warning LONDON: A decisive military victory in Afghanistan is impossible and the Taliban may have to be part of a long-term solution for the country, a senior British commander in Afghanistan has said.

“We’re not going to win this war,” Brigadier Mark Carleton-Smith was quoted as saying in a British newspaper, published on Sunday.

He also reportedly said a deal with the Taliban might be on the table.

“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,” Carleton-Smith was quoted in the newspaper as saying.

Britain and its Nato allies are engaged in a fierce campaign against Taliban fighters in Afghanistan, following the US invasion of the country in 2001, which toppled the Taliban government.

Carleton-Smith said foreign forces had “taken the sting out of the Taliban for 2008″ but that it would be “unrealistic and probably incredible” to think that the multinational forces in Afghanistan could rid the country of armed groups.

Britain has about 7,800 troops in Afghanistan.