Red Rat and David,

I have a friend serving on contract now in Kabul who was largely responsible for creating or putting together the new Afghan equivalent of West Point over the past two years.

He told me that one of the outside sources of funding for unique aspects of the Afghan Military Service Academy (don't know it's actual, technical name just now) came from the Government of Turkey, who agreed to fund a chapel, a mosque to be precise, being built as part of the total campus there in Kabul. This was and is a practical, far sighted event in my book.

Am interested in the current tense yellow journalism row going on in the UK Parliament over raising and sending more UK troops to Afghanistan. I believe these UK additional forces and equipment, particularly more helicopters, are sorely needed.

FOR GRADUATE STUDENT INPUT AND STUDY OR DISCUSSION: A friend who is a retired PhD (university professor) here in the South where we all live asked me the other day what are the reasons we are in Afghanistan; why do we still need to be there; and also he asked, his view, why don't we just pull out and declare victory?

Rather than bore everyone with my answers, I am interested in the inputs to these questions from and by the UK graduate students old and new Registered or as Members on the SWJ.