Tackling terror

Victory over Islamic extremism, if it is achieved in the long-run, will not look like other traditional military triumphs but would be just as significant. That is why success in the onslaught against the abhorrent Taliban is vital.

It is, however, a huge undertaking. Operation Moshtarak is the largest offensive against insurgents since 2001. The "key objectives" of securing ground and killing Taliban fighters were secured early yesterday, according to the British Army, but already they have come at a price with allied soldiers' lives lost.

Their colleagues will press on with the aims of driving out the insurgents, dismantling improvised explosive devices and disrupting the lucrative trade in opium smuggling, knowing that momentum must not be lost.

Gordon Brown knows this too, although he has not always showed it. Hard-won progress must not be sacrificed because of domestic political concerns, a failure to provide the right equipment for our soldiers, or a refusal to make Britain's voice heard in talks with American and Afghan forces.

Britons support our troops but have not written a blank cheque for politicians to pursue this war. People here know the cost, in billions of pounds and, most importantly in terms of lives, is increasingly hard to bear.

When the end of Operation Moshtarak – meaning "together" in the local Dari dialect – has been reached, the political focus must return to re-building Afghanistan and its fledgling democracy. Rooting out the vast number of corrupt officers from the police service is central to this aim.

British soldiers proved their inestimable value well before Moshtarak. Now they must get the backing they deserve from Westminster.