didn't ya'll already try this, back in rudyard kipling days?

October 18, 2006

Troops will be in Afghanistan for next 20 years, says commander

By Kim Sengupta

Published: 18 October 2006

The commander of the British forces returning from Helmand said that

his forces were having to make up for the time lost by the decision of

the US and UK to invade Iraq instead of concentrating on post-Taliban

Afghanistan.

" We could have carried on in 2002 in the same way we have gone about

business now, " said Brigadier Ed Butler. " Have the interim four years

made a difference? I think realistically they have. It doesn't mean

that we will not achieve what we set out to do. "

Stressing that he was speaking from a strictly UK perspective, and not

for the international community, Brigadier Butler added: " So have we

slipped back? I don't think we have slipped back, we may have marked

time and I think we are starting to make up for that time. "

Brigadier Butler continued that an international presence may be

required in Afghanistan for the next 20 years, but he did not specify

how long the British forces would have to remain.

As nightfall does not come at once, neither does oppression. In both instances,

there's a twilight where everything remains seemingly unchanged, and it is in

such twilight that we must be aware of change in the air, however slight, lest

we become unwitting victims of the darkness.

William O. Douglas

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