pride and hostility to foreign occupation and the corrupt practices of Kabul-appointed governors. Removing the occupation and having locally chosen police would allow the elders to reassert control. A key precondition for a new approach in Afghanistan has to be an end to the west's simplistic "war on terror" rhetoric and its latest incarnation, Bush's Prague talk of "freedom versus extremism". Promising "victory" in Afghanistan only risks the perception of "defeat" when the reality eventually dawns that there is no military solution. About this article Jonathan Steele: The west has to accept that there is no military solution This article appeared on p39 of the Main section section of the Guardian on Thursday 7 June 2007 . It was published on guardian.co.uk at 19.08 EDT on Thursday 7 June 2007 . It was last modified at 19.08 EST on Friday 11 January 2008 . It was first published at 18.17 EDT on Thursday 7 June 2007 . Comments Wow, imagine him in 1940, the war is lost, the continent is under German control and the USA will do nothing to help us, lets throw in the towel. Conflict is about two or more forces doing stuff, you do something they respond and then they do something. I have in six years time watched and winced as my country's leaders have increasingly squandered their opportunity in Afghanistan. A chance to become a humble and tranformative leader in a region too long plagued by war was there for the taking. My reaction