Taliban fighters must be offered a route to peace: Miliband

Britain is not fighting a war "without end in Afghanistan but Nato cannot risk leaving a vacuum for the Taliban, David Miliband said yesterday.
Speaking after the British Prime Minister had held out the prospect that the handover of some districts to local control could start as early as next year, the British Foreign Secretary said that he as much as anyone else wants to bring our troops back home to safety". It was the latest evidence of the Governments twin-track strategy to explain better why forces have to be in Afghanistan, but also to show the public that there is a plan to bring them home.
In the meantime that means sending more troops, and Mr Miliband told the Nato Parliamentary Assembly that Britain stood ready to send more as part of an agreed strategy.
Planning was said by Foreign Office sources to be well advanced for a summit in London in late January at which a timetable for the district-by-district transfer of power to local forces would start to be drawn up. It would also be used to try to persuade Nato countries to send more troops to bring a swifter end to the mission.
Mr Miliband said: We cannot leave a vacuum which the Taleban will quickly fill, and under their umbrella, al-Qaeda quickly follow. Counter-terrorism may deal with symptoms it brings short-term success but only a comprehensive strategy can deal with the causes and ensure that when we leave, we do so knowing that we will not have to return.
In his address to the assembly in Edinburgh, Mr Miliband added: We support the prosecution of a serious counter-insurgency effort in Afghanistan. We do not see that as an alternative to counter-terrorism but as the best means to achieve it. And we are ready in the right conditions to raise our already high contribution on the basis of an agreed strategy.
He told delegates that the UK had suffered the bloodiest war since the Falklands conflict, with more than 100 deaths since Armistice Day last year.
Calling for support for Natos operations, he said: We will succeed in Afghanistan only if our military resources and development assistance are aligned behind a clear political strategy. Unless we get this right, our military will be able to suppress the cancers of insurgency and instability but not tackle their root causes.
Highlighting a recent BBC poll, he said: Very few Afghans want the Taliban back, and that is our greatest strength. But they fear that the international community will tire of the war and the Taleban will return, inflicting brutal retribution on those who collaborated with the Government.
Mr Miliband, who will visit Afghanistan later this week, said it was important to support President Karzai in efforts to bring opposing forces on side.
He added: Some Afghan Taliban may be committed to global jihad but the vast majority are not. Their primary commitment is to tribe and locality.
Our goal is not to fight to the death. It is to demonstrate clearly that they cannot win and to provide a way back into their communities for those who are willing to live peacefully.
Mr Miliband was later pressed on whether forces should remain in Afghanistan, or whether countries should withdraw their forces and concentrate on counter-terrorist work at home, as argued by Kim Howells, the former Foreign Office minister.
But the Foreign Secretary stressed the importance of keeping troops in the region.
He told the assembly: If youre playing football and you want to make sure you dont concede any goals, the answer is not to put all of your players on the goal line thats not a way to prevent the other side scoring goals.
And I think in Afghanistan we have a similar challenge. If we believe simply by retreating within our own borders, by strengthening our own domestic measures, by improving our intelligence services that will be sufficient, Im afraid I do not believe that would be sufficient as a strategy.
He said: To my mind it is obvious that if we were to walk away and turn our backs on Afghanistan, al-Qaeda would be back in a flash.
They would have a sanctuary from which to launch their strategy of global jihad, a strategy that is directed first and foremost against us.(The Times)