BROWN IS STILL NOT BEING HONEST ON AFGHANISTAN

The Prime Minister correctly labelled Karzai’s administration “a byword for corruption” and said he would not put British troops “in harm’s way” for such a government.

He even told Karzai that “cronies and warlords should have no place in the future of Afghanistan”. These are all noble sentiments and their expression is long overdue. But the Prime Minister also insisted that Britain and other Western powers “cannot, must not and will not” walk away from Afghanistan.

The fact is that there is not the slightest chance of Karzai or any alternative Afghan leader running a regime shorn of cronies and without the support of warlords.

That benighted land has been run on such a basis since time immemorial. So while Mr Brown was more frank about Karzai’s shortcomings yesterday than ever before, he was still not presenting the British people with an honest assessment.

The real choice facing Britain is whether to continue sacrificing its troops in support of an irredeemably corrupt figure and his chronically dysfunctional country or whether to bring them home.

More and more public figures are now voicing the view that this newspaper has been advancing for years: the lives of our gallant service personnel should not be wasted in a war without end.