I don't know about the numbers of dead. We are getting the definite impression from news sources and from the open and public complaints by leading military figures, that our troops are poorly equipped and supported by the politicians. That is inexcusable.

Afghanistan is a strategically important territory. It was ever thus. The world (UK included) have been fighting either directly or by proxy in Afghanistan for hundreds of years whilst the ordinary civilian population repeatedly pays the usual price in deprivation and death.

Since the USA and Russia fought a proxy-war in the 1980's in which the CIA funded and armed Osama bin Laden and the Taleban (was there ever better proof of the saying "As ye sow...") the civilian population have lived under the boot of a pseudo-religious terrorist mob that wanted to drag the society back 1,400 years to a theocratic agrarian society. Basically they were Khmer Rouge in turbans. Bin Laden operated his terrorist network from Kabul and we know where that led us.

So we have no choice but to deal with this for our own self-preservation (ignoring the fact that it is all of our own making anyway) Give them Afghanistand and then Pakistan is next and then the mullahs have nuclear weapons.

That aside, the people of Afghanistan are like people everywhere. We are all the same. We worry about health, jobs, providing for our children and for our old-age, having a safe society. So yes, they want an end to the taleban and their retrograde views towards society and towards the status of women, art, culture.

But this is where things get strained. Having travelled in war-zones, I can tell you that after a while people will tolerate almost anything if it means that their families might continue just to live.

So as much as they would like the Taleban replaced with elected uncorrupt leaders, schools for women and so on, these aspirations are secondary to staying alive. Security and safety is all that matters and if it starts to seem that we cannot stamp out the Taleban and deliver that security then we will not carry people with us. In an attempt to eek out some sort of life, folk will sacrifice "higher ideals" and acquiesce. And that would be tragedy for us and for them.

Iraq was a reckless and ignorant sideshow by a dangerously stupid Texan oil spiv and his slavering, fellating side-kick (Bush / Blair). Both of them should be in front of an international court for all the innocent lives that they are directly responsible for ending.

Afghanistan, I think, is the real-deal. This is the genuine clash of right and wrong, reason over religious terror, civilisation over stone-age anarchy. It's one that we must not lose!

What I know,or believe, about the views of the people comes from extensive work in the region (Southern Iran, Pakistan) and from working last year on security issues with a healthcare NGO in Afghanistan. That organisation were involved in some very interesting and revealing healthcare outreach, particularly for women, that says a lot about the shared experiences and concerns of ordinary people. I came to know the country-director for Afghanistan and others in-country.