The Head of NATO has just made a statement that the Taliban have to rooted out of Afghanistan. But the Taliban formerly controlled 95% of the country and had virtually put a halt to opium production. Furthermore, they are Pushtun people whose ancestors have cultivated that land for centuries. Pakistan does not want to receive them as refugees. So where are they expected to go? Would the UK grant them asylum?!!!

I have read reports that 500 or even 1600 Taliban fighters have been killed in Afghanistan in recent months. This policy could be described as ethnic cleansing because the majority of the present Afghan establishment are not Pashtun and do not speak Pashto and NATO has weapons far superior to those of the Taliban. The foreign troops should be withdrawn at once from Afghanistan because their presence will not bring peace. In fact the majority of Muslims around the world would say that their presence gives the local people the right to resist by means of force or jihad. Peace can only be reached by diplomacy and economic development and by incorporating the Taliban into the Afghan administration. This was suggested by General Musharraf several years ago and he has now sensibly signed a truce with the elders in Waziristan, even though there have been several attempts on his life. Hamid Karzai should do the same in Helmand Province and elsewhere. And farmers will have to be persuaded through financial incentives to grow crops other than opium.

yours sincerely,

Dr Roger Boase