Afghanistan on 'downward spirial', says US intelligence

Can George Bush and Gordon Brown still insist progress is being made in Afghanistan following leaks of a harsh assessment of the war by US intelligence? When a British envoy was quoted as saying that the situation in Afghanistan was bad and getting worse, the report was brushed off by the foreign secretary, David Miliband, as "garbled". When the commander of UK troops said, at the weekend, that the Taliban could not be defeated, Miliband complained that his words had been twisted. Now we are told that Afghanistan is in a "downward spiral" and there are serious doubts about the Afghan government's ability to stem... [read full story]