UK Armed Forces Chief: Military Action Won't Work in Afghanistan

This coming from Bush's former lapdog loyal supporters:

POLITICAL rather than military strategies are the only solutions to the turmoil in Afghanistan and other war-torn countries, the head of Britain's armed forces has said.

Air Chief Marshall Sir Jock Stirrup, the Chief of Defence Staff, said bringing Afghanistan into "its rightful place" in the 21st century, will be an "enormous project" that will engage the international community for decades.

[...]He said: "There is a common misperception that the issues in Afghanistan, and indeed elsewhere around the world, can be dealt with by military means.

"That's a false perception. The military is a key, an essential element in dealing with those problems, but by and large these problems can only be resolved politically."

Earlier, Lord Ashdown, the former UN envoy, said he believed NATO was losing in Afghanistan. The consequences would be even worse than losing in Iraq, he warned, pointing to the potential regional war between different strands of Islam.

"It will mean that Pakistan will fall and it will have serious implications internally for the security of our own countries and will instigate a wider Shiite- Sunni regional war on a grand scale.