The Afghan "surge" Amos has as yet hardly commenced, the troops assigned in December last year will not all be in place for about another six to eight weeks.

My son who is now out there on his fourth tour tells me that they are still in the process of building up base facilities to receive them.

At no time during the entire time the Soviets were in the country did the "Mujahideen" ever consider their war as being in a "stalemate" condition. At no time did they EVER consider talks or a compromise with the Soviet invaders. The leader of the Taleban, Mullah Mohammed Omar, has been stating that the fighting has been at a stalemate since 2008 and there have been numerous contacts with the various Taleban groups for years.

In the spring and summer of 2006 the "Afghan Taleban" swore that they would destroy ISAF in Helmand Province. This was the Taleban who had rested and re-organised over the border in Pakistan in the three years previous. They were then at their strongest and most capable and they only faced 680 combat troops out of a total ISAF force of 3,300. They failed to destroy, or even discourage ISAF in 2006, so how on earth do they think they are going to succeed against 30,000 ISAF Troops plus an equal number of ANA forces. Security, employment and education will defeat the Taleban in both Helmand and Kandahar, the international community and the Afghan Government can offer the people of those Provinces all three, the Taleban on the other hand can only offer those people a continuation of what they have had to endure for the past thirty years.