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The US must leave Afghanistan at the earliest possible date but not later than 2012, in accordance with the US president Barack Obama’s “announced intent”. I have said this with increased frequency in the past few months. Why?

Early in 2009, the US admiral Mike Mullen was the first senior military officer to admit in a congressional hearing that “the US was losing the war in Afghanistan”. Militarily, the situation has not undergone much change since. Politically, Mr Obama’s new policy wants to bring peace to some key areas and “build the capacity of the Afghan security forces”. It seeks to “promote better relations with the locals”. But how a “surge” of a mere 30,000 troops can realistically achieve these objectives defies understanding.