Skip to main content
Dealing with the Taliban – how top brass views the West's defeat in Afghanistan
Taliban fighters stand guard during women's protest in Kabul, Afghanistan

MAJOR GENERAL James Cowan, who led the British Army operation in Afghanistan as the head of Task Force Helmand in 2009-10, says Britain needs to “swallow our pride and support a moderate wing of the Taliban”  to avert a “catastrophe,” a “humanitarian disaster” and a “civil war.”

Major General Cowan now runs the Halo Trust, a de-mining charity, which has over 2,000 staff still working in Afghanistan removing deadly mines and “IEDs” planted during decades of war.

The fact that the man who led the life-and-death fight against the Taliban for Britain now argues this suggests that a British deal with the Taliban is inevitable – it’s just a question of when. Major General Cowan’s argument is that sooner is better than later.

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
More from this author
Sabrina Carpenter performs during The BRIT Awards 2025 at London's O2 Arena, March 1, 2025
Features / 16 May 2025
16 May 2025

Labour’s pop-loving front bench have snaffled up even more music tickets worth thousands apiece, reports SOLOMON HUGHES

Channel Migrants
Features / 9 May 2025
9 May 2025

Secret consultation documents finally released after the Morning Star’s two-year freedom of information battle show the Home Office misrepresented public opinion, claiming support for policies that most respondents actually strongly criticised as dangerous and unfair, writes SOLOMON HUGHES

Scud_downed_by_Patriot_missiles
Media / 2 May 2025
2 May 2025

SOLOMON HUGHES highlights a 1995 Sunday Times story about the disappearance of ‘defecting Iraqi nuclear scientist.’ Even though the story was debunked, it was widely repeated across the mainstream press, creating the false – and deadly – narrative of Iraqi WMD that eventually led to war

LOCKED-IN OUTSOURCING: Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood during the official opening of HMP Millsike in Yorkshire, to be run by the notorious outsourcing firm Mitie
Features / 24 April 2025
24 April 2025

Despite Labour’s promises to bring things ‘in-house,’ the Justice Secretary has awarded notorious outsourcing outfit Mitie a £329 million contract to run a new prison — despite its track record of abuse and neglect in its migrant facilities, reports SOLOMON HUGHES

Similar stories
Former Afghan interpreters protest in front of the Home Offi
Books / 26 July 2024
26 July 2024
DOC RITCHIE assesses an account of the disastrous evacuation by last British ambassador to Afghanistan