Plan B For Afghanistan?

摘要

The clammy odour of defeat is in the air. Talk of a new realism abounds in most of the troop-contributing nations in Afghanistan, although for most it is merely a prelude to an early exit. Both President George W. Bush and Prime Minister Gordon Brown paid surprise visits recently to American and British troops in Afghanistan during which one talked of 'hopeful gains', whilst the other mourned British soldiers who had died in 'the front-line of terror'. The Taliban continue to make gains across the country, while the writ of the Afghan government is "increasingly ignored even in Kabul.