The view here of reality and history roars in the face of the pro-war propaganda that has free-flowed from Bush/Cheney and the pro-war corporate media. It is duly noted that echoes of that propaganda are also being heard from Obama and Brown.

This is an opinion piece by a journalist who has looked, learned, and spoken. He has it right. Until people realise that Afghanistan has never had a "strong" central government; that it always has been a country ruled by regional strongmen and tribal chieftains; that an ethnically-based civil war is underway; and that "Taliban" is simply a misleading label for a wide range of disaffected Pashtun, not an organisation or movement. Al Qaeda is largely irrelevant and remains in Pakistan, not Afghanistan. Afghanistan should be left alone to reach its own equilibrium.