If you think even for a moment that the brits are comfortable with the amount of blood and treasure being daily expended firefighting the taleban and want to be part of a new great game, then you forget that we are an incredible democracy with a fierce press. While there is still a grave risk to both Afghan and nuclear Pakistani stability, there exists no better use of scarce resoucres than to firefight, hold and build in that region. Your solution is presumably to just up sticks and leave. You want Vietnam. You obviously believe that thinking in anyway strategically is somehow evil and refuse to see any good whatsoever in anything that doesn't tally 100 per cent with your no war ever viewpoint.____Small historical point: this area is indeed the graveyard of empires, and in comparison with all the other areas that were successfully 'colonised' or 'civilsed', particularly by the imperfect British, it undoubtedly suffers by comparison. If you don't agree, please advance an argument for the superiority of tribal rule over democracy, or also how it can be toppled other than from those outside the tribes.