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Defence Policy

I draw the hon. Gentleman's attention to an article in The Sunday Times on 12 October by Christina Lamb, an embedded reporter in Afghanistan, in which she refers to having dinner with Brigadier Carleton-Smith who told her"““we should stop thinking in terms of defeat and victory. We need to lower our expectations…We're not going to win this war; it's ""about reducing it to a manageable level of insurgency that's not a strategic threat and can be managed by the Afghan army.””" He went on to refer to"““trying to achieve a political settlement that might well involve giving some power to the Taliban.””" Does the hon. Gentleman agree with that approach?