LONDON: The first combat mission of British commandos and paras in Afghanistan’s Zawar valley evokes admiration tinged with apprehension. This initial operation inside a cave complex used by Al Qaeda terrorists was unopposed. It might well not have been. Future actions by the 1,700-strong British ground force now deploying in eastern Afghanistan are likely to be more problematic.

This apparent use of British troops as a spearhead force, clearing a safe path for US infantry, is reminiscent of the hazardous, low-level missions assigned to RAF Tornado pilots at the outset of the Gulf war.

While Britain’s military chiefs are rightly proud of such skill and bravery, Britain’s political leaders must understand, this time around, that British lives should be counted every bit as precious as American.

This is doubly so when the war in question is primarily an American war, led by Americans, and to which Britain makes a voluntary contribution. President George Bush seems to believe he can say or do whatever he likes in Afghanistan and, for example, in respect of Iraq, and that Britain will back him come what may.

This impression went sadly uncorrected by Tony Blair in Crawford, Texas. It cannot be allowed, a few months from now, in what the defence secretary, Geoff Hoon, concedes is an open-ended conflict (and as congressional elections near), to result in British soldiers being put in harm’s way in order to lessen the risk to US forces.

Far from being a mopping-up operation, as Blair has suggested, the ground campaign is only beginning. It will confront Al Qaeda and Taliban forces moving freely in and out of Pakistani territory and supplied and armed by a sympathetic population.

As the political process agreed in Bonn last year edges uncertainly towards June’s loya jirga, the military campaign will increasingly be conducted against a backdrop of feuding warlords, the continuing woes of over two million aid-dependent civilians and millions of still displaced refugees, stop-go reconstruction (so far, a mere fifth of the 1.8bn dollars pledged in foreign aid has materialized), and a gradual erosion of trust and goodwill towards the western interlopers. Evidence of this latter trend is to be found in the now almost daily attacks on the British-led stabilisation force in Kabul.

It is fanciful, if not criminally reckless, to imagine Al Qaeda and like-minded elements will not ruthlessly exploit these fault lines. Think about it from their perspective.

With or without Osama bin Laden, it is clear that many, if not most survived the US onslaught. They survived the daisy-cutters and the bunker-busters; they survived the precision missiles (which, as we report today, were far less accurate than claimed). They survived the loss of the cities and the partial victory of their northern enemies.

Now, plotting an insidious return to the fray, they believe they have the Americans’ measure. Into the no man’s land between these bitterly opposed forces, the British army has just blithely stepped.—Dawn/The Guardian News Service.