Excerpted-

This is an unwelcome victory. British forces could never have taken the Snake’s Head. They are already spread thin across Helmand. The US Marines have shown up two embarrassing truths. First, that if the British want to prevail in Helmand, they will need more troops. And second, that there are not enough British — or Afghan — troops available to hold the ground that the Americans have taken. This, the Foreign Office fears, will be a political problem. How will ministers cope with the military necessity of more troops for a war in Afghanistan which they will not admit is a war, and for which public support is wavering?

During a video conference between Foreign Office officials in Afghanistan and London, Whitehall mandarins moan about the capture of Garmsir district and the inconvenient challenges that it poses.

It takes the intervention of the British Ambassador to Kabul for the civil servants to comprehend that the capture of the Snake’s Head is to be celebrated, not condemned.

“Rejoice! Rejoice!” Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles shouts at a startled room of officials in London. He observes that, since the British military and civilian mission to Helmand is to expand the reach of the Afghan Government, it is churlish to complain when they have done just that.