Denis MacShane: The military battle against terror can't go on. Now we need a different strategy

This news is hardly news to anyone who has visited Afghanistan. The grim death toll of civilians is the worst-kept secret in this blighted war-torn nation. When I was there a few years ago, a US patrol heard bangs and thought they were coming under attack. The soldiers got out of their armoured vehicles and opened fire with every weapon they had to hand.

Soon 30 Afghans lay dead and more were wounded.

None carried a weapon, none posed a threat.

The no-nonsense US general in charge waved away the problem as just another accident of war. The incident was not even reported in the UK media which understandably focuses on the British casualties.

Just as no-one knew that more than a thousand brave Pakistani officers and men have lost their lives as they try to control the in- and outflow of Pashtun Taliban across the frontier between the Pakistan and Afghanistan, so, too, the grim death toll of civilians is not made front page news until now.

Like generals, journalists often mix up the old war with a new one. Not killing civilians is now a priority. The over-easy acceptance of "collateral damage", to use a hideous phrase, has been replaced by

an over-anxious desire not to kill civilians.

The British commander has said he wanted medals to go to soldiers who withheld their fire and took risks with their own lives rather than start shooting and possibly see innocent people be killed.

The idea of a Victoria Cross for conspicuous gallantry by not firing back may sound odd, but that is how both US and British generals now see the war.

Nor is it new that outside countries are heavily involved. Pakistan's Pashtun population are the same as the southern population of Afghanistan. Margaret Thatcher encouraged Pakistan to support and fund the jihadis – forerunner of the Taliban – who took up arms against the Soviet army in Afghanistan.

A quarter of a century ago, the US sent billions and hi-tech weapons to the same men who now are fighting Nato as they drove the Red Army out of Afghanistan. India has opened consulates in Afghan cities where no Indian has been seen for years and is sending hundreds of millions of development aid to Afghanistan to buy influence there. British development aid to India allows New Delhi to spend its own money on increasing influence in Afghanistan. This, in turn, is seen by Pakistan as a policy of encirclement as Pakistan already faces a 500,000 strong Indian army on its Kashmir border.

Thus, the revelation in the leaked documents that Pakistan is involved in Afghanistan is also not new. Twice before, Pakistan has watched the West leave a vacuum in Afghanistan. The first time was when the Soviets left and Britain and the US did nothing to stop the takeover by the Taliban. The second time was after 9/11 when George W Bush and Tony Blair turned their attention from Afghanistan to launching the intervention in Iraq to topple Saddam Hussein.

But, as with the leak of the Pentagon Papers in the early 1970s which heralded the draw down of US forces in Vietnam, this leak should also be used to reinforce those who are calling for a major revision of strategy in Afghanistan. As Richard Haass, president of the US Council of Foreign Relations argued last week in Newsweek: "After nearly nine years of war, continued or increased US involvement in Afghanistan isn't likely to yield lasting improvements that would be commensurate in any way with the investment of American blood and treasure. It is time to scale down our ambitions there and both reduce and redirect what we do."

On a visit earlier this month to Washington, it was clear to me that this viewpoint is gaining ground in US policy circles. David Cameron has also picked up the need for a change of strategy in Afghanistan. While his Defence Secretary, Liam Fox, now known as "13th Century Fox" after his crass description of Afghanistan as a 13th century nation, was pledging to keep sending British soldiers to be Taliban target practice, his boss, the new Prime Minister, was sending out different signals that it was time to lower the military profile and replace kinetic soldiering by softer nation-building.

The strategic aim in Afghanistan is to stop the country again becoming a safe-haven for al-Qaida. This is all but achieved and a modest British military presence helping train the Afghan army and police together with Nato allies should be the aim.

The West needs to get out of full-scale confrontation in majority

Muslim countries. David Cameron should invest as much in Pakistan, en route to becoming the world's biggest Muslim nation in the next two decades, and use Yorkshire's Pakistani community to help build better links with Pakistan.

We need a policy of containment and a political solution to the problem of global terrorism. For nearly 10 years, we have tried war-fighting and it has not worked. This leaked report is a good moment to develop a new strategy.

Denis MacShane is Labour MP for Rotherham, and a former deputy Foreign Secretary.