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There are no good options left for Britain in Afghanistan. Brown should set a date for withdrawal

On his first visit to Afghanistan in March 2006, George W Bush spoke of his hope that its people understood that, as "democracy takes hold, you're inspiring others. And that inspiration will cause others to demand their freedom." More than three years later, the neoconservative vision of setting up a western-style, democratic state in Afghanistan - endorsed by Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, among others - lies in ruins, discredited by widespread and state-engineered fraud in August's presidential election.

Now, the UN-backed Electoral Complaints Commission, having initially received more than 2,000 complaints of fraud and intimidation, has confirmed what the world...