Tues 19 September - Afghanistan and the Taliban

"What a wonderful foreign policy this nation has to follow. First we poke our snouts into the middle eastern theatre of conflict, admittedly to try to offer a degree of protection to the miniscule state of Kuwait, but apart from that we had no other right of entry.

"Then we stand idly by on the touch lines as Iraq and Iran try to throttle the living daylights out of each other, and what do we get out of it? Why the provision of armaments to both sides. Remember the massive gun parts we shipped over there, with the potential to send enormous explosive shells across hundreds of miles to targets not only in Iraq, but quite possibly Israel as well. Along with the means of manufacturing gas and the method of delivery of the same we handed to Saddam Hussains regime.

"For reasons that are yet to be made expressly clear we them attack the Taliban in their home territory, in the full knowledge that never has any invading force been able to suppress the tenacious tribal war lords of that country. Let us get it straight, although of a different bent, the Taliban are nevertheless still Afghans carrying on the tradition of repelling the infidel invader.

"Now we get our Foreign Secretary telling us things we already knew from past experience, that the Taliban (read Afghans) are far more tenacious and fearsome than was first thought before we went into their country.

"We tried it in the Victorian era, the Soviets tried it, a variety of internal warlords tried in vain to unite the country by attritionary methods, that is fighting one another, until the rise of the Taliban (students), and look at what was achieved, in a couple of words, SOD ALL!

"They are not just sturdy and vicious fighters - they have the advantage of their own territory in which to operate. We move in and expect them to go belly up just because we are agressive enough to test their mettle.

"Gone are the days when we had the advantage of superior weaponry, and even when we did so have superiority of arms, we still could not clean out the nests of vipers that lurked behind every rock. So what on earth made us think we could have the advantage in the current, and last few decades? Under that question mark I include the Soviet Union also.

"They, the Afghani fighters have equivalent arms, thoughtfully provided by the western and eastern blocs, along with China and no doubt other interested participants. So where is our advantage and what is it worth these days?

"There is only one means left to us in this era, and that is to utilise weapons that are normally there to ensure no one will dare press the button, that being a facility the Afghans do not possess, unless of course someone like North Korea provides such to them. However this would go against all that we hold to be sacrosanct under the various conventions and concordats arrived at since the eradication of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

"This leave but one course open to the western allied expeditionary forces - get the Hell out of there, before it all rumbles forward into a situation that gets beyond control. I suggest the Foreign Secretary and his associates around the Cabinet table make a pretty hasty decision before the matter is taken out of the hands of the British Government and becomes an embroilment involving much larger and more capable armed forces than ours appear to be at present. To such a formidable scenario, we would be just simply in the way, and as such would be brushed aside like a team of junior schoolboy footballers against Man United or Liverpool.

"Now is the time to call a halt to our involvement, before any, many more of our troops are exterminated in the name of 'democratising' a nation that has never in its history had such a blessing."

Note - Morgan's views are not necessarily shared by the BBC