An exit strategy in Afghanistan

Last Monday, two British Marines and one Danish soldier were killed in a firefight with Taliban guerrillas in the southern Afghan province of Helmand. This brought the number of international soldiers killed in Afghanistan this year to over 30.

For what noble cause have these young men died?

At their summit meeting in Bucharest this week, Nato heads of state have discussed how to boost the alliance's war effort in Afghanistan. They should instead have debated how to reach a peace settlement with the insurgents - and how to get out.

Nato has evidently got itself into a colossal muddle in Afghanistan. Everything that could possibly go wrong has gone wrong. It is far from clear why the alliance is fighting there at all, and what it is seeking to achieve. Talk of "victory" is a dangerous illusion.

In 2003, there were 20,000 foreign troops in Afghanistan. By 2007, this number had trebled to 60,000 - and is shortly to increase further with the arrival of another 3,200 US Marines and a further 1,000 French soldiers. Has this vast increase in troop levels brought added security to the country? Is peace breaking out? Are reconstruction and development of the war-torn country progressing? Has opium growing been eradicated, or at least curbed? Alas, quite the contrary. GulfNews

Afghanistan's government is trying to harness parent power in an attempt to stop the Taliban burning schools and murdering teachers. There has been a sharp rise in attacks on schools since the new term started on 23 March, prompting fears that the Taliban are returning to a campaign waged two years ago to cripple the education system.

In the past three weeks, at least 10 schools have been torched and a guard had his ears cut off. Now education chiefs are using parent-teacher associations to guard schools, record Nato troop levels and billions of dollars spent rebuilding the police force having failed to curb attacks. In the two years to February, at least 235 teachers, students and education workers were killed and 222 wounded. Parent power deployed to protect schools from Taliban