Afghanistan: 100 down and no end in sight

The killing of three soldiers of the Parachute Regiment by a suicide bomber outside their base in Helmand province brought the number of British troops killed in Afghanistan to 100 since they first arrived in 2001.

For their families and other soldiers, what is poignant is that there seems to be no end in sight to a deployment that has surpassed British involvement in the Second World War from 1939 to 1945. Our politicians seem to have little idea of where the mission to Afghanistan will end up, and when.

"They really need to spell out plainly why we are in Afghanistan, and what support our soldiers should expect," a senior officer confided on hearing of the latest casualties.

"The problem is that we are hearing all about tactics, and not about the overall strategy," another senior Afghan hand in the Army remarked recently. Just last week,

the British commander in Helmand, Brigadier Mark Carleton-Smith, said he believed the British were making gains and had destroyed a large part of the Taliban command in his sector, hence the concentration on suicide bombers and roadside ambushes.

Meanwhile the brigadier's predecessor in command of 16 Air Assault Brigade, Brigadier Ed Butler, has announced he is quitting the Army in mid-career. With a distinguished record of various commands in the SAS, Butler led the first paras into Helmand and has been blamed for what ensued - the desperate fighting by isolated groups of soldiers who had to defend their makeshift bases like the Alamo. He was also criticised for the local deal with tribal chiefs and Taliban in Musa Qala.

His departure and the ambush of the paras underline the need for the government to spell out a clear, coherent and realistic rationale for continuing British commitment to Helmand. There are enough problems with their allies in Afghanistan, not to mention the Taliban, without the Brits falling out among themselves.