In January 2006, when 3,300 British troops were committed to Afghanistan, the then Secretary of State for Defence, John Reid, claimed that British troops would accomplish their mission & leave "without a single shot being fired".
By 2008, 4,000,000 rounds of ammunition had been expended by British armed forces in Afghanistan.
The West will leave Afghanistan in exactly the same way that the Soviet empire did; having achieved nothing, except the squandering of young lives & much treasure. Afghanistan will revert to its' centuries-old tribal fiefdoms, ungovernable in nature; I am reminded of George Carew, the captain of the Tudor warship, Mary Rose, sallying forth to engage the French in the Solent. His uncle, Gawen Carew, sailed close by & hailed him, enquiring after his situation; George replied "I have the sort of knaves I cannot rule"...............
We are now treated to the demeaning spectacle of a politically-emasculated NATO dithering over Libya, due to a lack of fortitude in Western capitals. Perhaps we need to discuss a few things before our Syrian adventure?
Thank heavens we out-spent the Soviets before they came boiling over the Inner German Border............
HB