IN the arithmetic of warfare, 10 years (and counting) is far too long for a conflict to last.
And yet that it is the period that Western forces have been operating in Afghanistan after arriving in the country in October 2001 to oust the Taliban administration.
At the time, and in the intervening years, this newspaper gave conditional support to what quickly became a volatile and dangerous low-intensity war. There were sound reasons for that backing. The US, Britain's closest ally, was the victim of the worst terrorist attack in history, and because it was clear that the despotic Taliban government supported the al-Qaeda terrorists responsible for the outrage, there was a good case for invading Afghanistan.
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