Ashdown warns that Afghanistan is lost

When it comes to winning the peace few people know more than Paddy Ashdown so his warning that Afghanistan is “lost” is particularly alarming. The Telegraph quotes him setting out the consequences of defeat:

“I believe losing in Afghanistan is worse than losing in Iraq. It will mean that Pakistan will fall and it will have serious implications internally for the security of our own countries and will instigate a wider Shiite [Shia], Sunni regional war on a grand scale.

“Some people refer to the First and Second World Wars as European civil wars and I think a similar regional civil war could be initiated by this [failure] to match this magnitude.”Ashdown has been beating the drum on this issue for a while, arguing from his Bosnian experience that a high-level figure is needed to forge a coordinated strategy. (Sadly, Ashdown himself has turned down the job.) But the caveats that so restrict the role of most European troops serving in Afghanistan also need to be lifted.