US let Taliban come back from defeat, says top envoy --- American mistakes paved the way for the Taliban insurgency and the subsequent heavy toll of Nato and civilians lives could have been avoided, according to Washington’s top diplomat on Afghanistan and Pakistan. -- James Dobbins, Washington’s envoy to the region, said that the shift in US focus to Iraq, disintegration of the post-September 11 global coalition and a failure to set up a reconciliation process earlier in the conflict could have prevented the Taliban’s return. -- “I think we made several mistakes back in 2002,” he said. “I think it was probably a mistake to delay a serious attempt at reconciliation until 2011. -- “Those initiatives would have been better taken earlier. The decision to move onto Iraq ultimately made it more difficult to turn attention back to Afghanistan once the situation there deteriorated. -- “So by 2005, 2006 it was clear that much more needed to be done in Afghanistan and we simply didn’t have the resources to do so.” -- Mr Dobbins served as the US representative at the Bonn conference in 2002 that harnessed global support from Russia, China, Iran and Pakistan as well as the West to rebuild Afghanistan. He said the failure to maintain support from those countries had also damaged the effort to establish President Hamid Karzai’s fledging government. - More, Damien McElroy - Telegraph