AFGHANISTAN was a stable and progressive country before the United States funded, armed and trained the Mujahedin and the Taliban.

As we legitimately cast judgements on the Taliban, we need to remember that they were our own creation: the products of an obsessive US desire to crush communism. That the Taliban were to destroy the only era of genuine equality for women in Afghanistan's history never mattered to the military strategists of the time, and it is hypocritical to suggest it means any more today.

Figures from Afghanistan confirm that more people were killed in the recent bombings than on September 11 in the USA. Does this then make it quits? No, it does not. An equality of death rates among innocent civilians resolves nothing at all. If, as Blair and Bush say, the objective of the "war on terrorism" was to catch the perpetrators of the September 11 attack, to bring them to justice and to make the world a safer place, then the success rate of all three objectives has been nil. They must be the only leaders who have gone to war not knowing who the enemy is or where they are.

The fact is, the war in Afghanistan was never intended to resolve the problem of terrorism, it was designed to secure a safe route for oil pipelines from Central Asia through Pakistan, and to allow US companies access to those resources. This is a war of rich nations against poor nations and one which Britain should never have been allied to.

ELIZABETH TEBBS,

secretary,

Prestwich and Whitefield CND.