UK Defense Secretary: Taleban Needed for Afghan Peace

I guess the notion of eliminating these creatures might endanger peace.

It's mushy thinking like this that will put the lights out in Great Britain. Probably sooner than we thought.

Taleban 'needed for Afghan peace'

The Taleban "will need to be involved" at some stage with a peace process in Afghanistan, UK Defence Secretary Des Browne has said.

At a fringe meeting at the Labour Party conference, he said a solution would have to be "Islamic based".

Mr Browne said Taleban involvement would happen "because they are not going away" any more than Hamas was from the Palestinian territories.

He said the UK needed to see through "commitments" in Afghanistan and Iraq.

'Progressive' agenda

There are more than 7,500 British troops fighting the Taleban in Afghanistan, and about 5,500 soldiers in Iraq.

Mr Browne told delegates at the meeting hosted by the IPPR think-tank: "These are challenges we should not take on if we are not prepared to see them through and some of them are commitments for decades, some of them may be commitments for generations."

However, he stressed the commitment would not necessarily be military.

The defence secretary also said Labour needed a "progressive agenda" on defence.

Just surrender now and get it over with.