If only the foreign wars were fixable. Nobody can say anything any more about the adventure in Iraq: it’s too hopeless and depressing and Blair has moved on.

The war in Afghanistan – a war I supported back in 2002 – is hopeless in a different way: it could have been winnable once, but George W. Bush lost the plot, and America is very keen to be outta there.

The Afghan war could be – maybe, possibly, eventually – winnable still, if the world’s warmongers would damn well concentrate on it and define Nato’s mission and come up with what’s needed, i.e., masses of men, billions of treasure and a projected end-date of around, ooh – what? 2020?

Max Hastings just got back from Helmand, though, and says – despite the Army’s “supreme professionalism” – “failure seems very close”. ~Vicki Woods, The Daily Telegraph