Have we made Afghanistan a better place? Telegraph

Tony Blair sent British troops into Afghanistan in 2001, only weeks after the passengered bombs flew into the World Trade Centre. His response to that mind-boggling, televised atrocity was shockingly rapid: I remember well that the nuclear submarines HMS Triumph and HMS Trafalgar started shooting cruise missiles into "the Taliban frontline" which was vaguely "up country", or "near Kabul", in early October, because it was the same week that Jo Moore was having to apologise on camera for that very crass email about September 11 being a good day to bury bad news.

"The world" may not be listening. Everybody wants to leave Afghanistan. Obama, Denmark, us, everybody in the Nato mission. Canada is leaving in 2011, which is in about five minutes' in miltary terms; Cameron is promising 2015. It would have been better if we – and by "we" I mean you, Tony, obviously – had passed by on the other side of that conflict, frankly. -- Have we made Afghanistan a better place?

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