Patrick Wintour reports:
Gordon Brown yesterday scaled back UK strategic goals in Afghanistan, saying the objective was no longer to create a western-style democracy but simply to help set up a functioning state.
Looks like he's giving us a fact there. Later he adds, freely:
This represents a downgrading of the original neocon vision of setting up a democratic state.
If you hoped that democracy might come to Afghanistan with the overthrow of the Taliban, you've been in the grip of a neocon vision. Shucks.
