Michael Burleigh: Afghanistan -Ten Years of Bloodshed, And More to Come!

Ten years on we are still being told that one more heave, of three year's duration will leave Afghanistan in a condition where it is no longer a safe haven for Islamist terrorists. Actually, the biggest terrorist threat to us comes from Luton or Walthamstow rather than Kandahar, and Somalia or Yemen, if you want to identify somewhere abroad. Hamid Karzai said: 'We've done terribly badly in providing security to the Afghan people. This is the greatest shortcoming of our government and our international partners.' In recent months Taliban fanatics have carried out a string of brazen attacks. The coalition launched Operation Enduring Freedom in October 2001, after the 9/11 atrocity in New York, in an effort to track down Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, destroy terror training camps and overthrow the Taliban regime which had sheltered extremists. But a swift victory was followed by a decade of war that has sheltered extremists. A swift victory was followed by a decade of war that has claimed the lives of 2,000 Nato troops, including 382 Britons, and some 10,000 civilians!