Top UK officials declare Afghanistan LOST.."only political option remains"

On Thursday, Sir Eric "Jock" Stirrup, Chief of the Defense Staff, Air Chief Marshal of the British Armed Forces and former UK United Nations High Representative to Bosnia and Herzegovina, Paddy Ashdown, claimed there is no military solution in Afghanistan and a new strategy must be employed save her. They claim only political means can change Afghanistan's destiny, not military means.

"There is a common misperception that the issues in Afghanistan, and indeed elsewhere around the world, can be dealt with by military means. That's a false perception." Sir Jock
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"The military is a key, an essential element in dealing with those problems, but by and large these problems can only be resolved politically." telegraph

Lord Ashdown was a little more blunt with his statements,

Nato has "lost in Afghanistan" and its failure to bring stability there could provoke a regional sectarian war "on a grand scale"
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"We have lost, I think, and success is now unlikely...I believe losing in Afghanistan is worse than losing in Iraq. It will mean that Pakistan will fall and it will have serious implications internally for the security of our own countries and will instigate a wider Shiite [Shia], Sunni regional war on a grand scale.
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"Some people refer to the First and Second World Wars as European civil wars and I think a similar regional civil war could be initiated by this [failure] to match this magnitude."

It's about time someone smartens up. Sir Jock went on about not "staying the course"...

there was a need to talk to people who "may well have been Taliban in the past. I don't think we should focus too much on what people were in the past,"
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"I don't think that we should provide a rigid framework that dictates to people how they should express their appreciating," he said.

"I think what we should do is encourage people to express their appreciation but to develop their own means of that expression."

Good job, UK. Someone needs to break away from "staying the course". We need a 'new' mission, a 'new' strategy and yes...if we "stay the course", we have LOST. Continually bombing will not solve anything. Gaining peace in the skies offers no peace on the ground. Giving the Colony of Iraq and Afghanistan their sovereignty might.

Same Players. Different Scandal.