Operation Moshtarak - is anyone buying this as anything new? The events and reporting of events in Afghanistan are identical to the failed strategies of the Vietnam war. An assault on insurgents, although as with Vietnam it's hard to be an insurgent in your own country, is pretty much doomed to fail due to the opposition not turning up for the fight. The Taliban hide their weapons, melt into the background and wait for the operation to grind to an inconclusive end, then dig up their weapons and carry on as before.

The US Forces will report on "contact with the enemy", blood trails, and make assessments on the numbers of Taliban dead.

Following the operation and the subduing of enemy forces, as will be reported vociferously on the news, the Taliban will resurface and cause murder, death, mayhem and chaos across the country, but that won't be reported fully we'll just hear about the continuing trickle of coalition forces deaths, injuries, and continual failure to achieve anything.

We continue to support the Afghan government which is pretty rife with corruption, the Afghan forces and police, where our troops can never be entirely sure who's side they are on and worried about infiltration and all their plans and security arrangements are being handed to the other side!

How long until the media reports on Opium and Heroin abuse being rife in our forces due to being in an area awash with drugs? Is this already happening? Is this being concealed from us?

The problem with all of this is that if you take the word Afghanistan and replace it with Vietnam, and replace Taliban with Vietcong, then you aren't talking about current events but it's a history lesson. The weaponry may have improved, the US has convinced the UK government to let UK military to be killed this time, but the basic tactics haven't changed at all.

The resemblance of the ideas and tactics has a similarity of British military thinking in WWI, and the desire to move Field Marshall Haig's drinks cabinet one foot nearer to Berlin for every 1,000 allied deaths.

Why are the allied forces in Afghanistan following the same failed plans from other wars? What do they seek to achieve other than eventual defeat? Why aren't allied forces doing anything to destroy the Opium crops, how many times must we watch troops running past opium fields? Why must our young men and women be placed in danger of losing life or limb, plus all the subsequent post Afghanistan trauma they will suffer following their return home? Why must we at home sit in fear of retaliatory terrorist attack, be afraid of our neighbours, and suffer repression from our own governments for ends that aren't explained or explainable.

Answers on a postcard!