From the sounds of this latest briefing the UK government at least has the right idea about how Afghanistan should be governed:
“Mr Straw said that, on a more general point, failing states anywhere in the world could no longer be ignored because the power vacuum created would be exploited by criminals and terrorists.”
All good points, and consistent with Blair’s excellent musings on this point, most notably in his party conference speech, but a lot more interventionist (I fear some will think ‘colonialist’) than anything we have heard from politicians elsewhere in the last few decades.