Events of the last week show reality of conflict

The crucial thing is to recognise that Afghanistan is a fight that must be fought. The situation there relates directly to the threat faced by the cities of Europe, including London, and all our homes.

It's also a fact that 90 per cent of the heroin in the UK is sourced from Afghanistan, while funds from the misery on our streets directly support the insurgents there.

What is needed is a coherent strategy to deal with this spectrum of subversion. On one side, we need to improve the politics and deal with the corruption holding back progress and, above all, deliver a political system Afghans can believe in.

We must also deal with the violence and give military support to buy time for the Afghans to allow their police and military to stand on their own two feet. That means our soldiers getting in close with the Taliban because we can't win over the population by bombing them with drones. The events of the past week, with casualties running towards double figures, show the reality of the job that needs to be done, but if we are losing casualties, the Taliban are losing many more in a fight to the death that they can't sustain.

The great caveat is that we desperately need to increase troop numbers and our lift capacity with helicopters so our troops can fly over explosive devices insurgents use on roads. The bottom line is that it's all about providing the resources. It's not all about military hardware - it's also about providing support for good governance, which will be worth as much as any bullet. But this is fight that we must continue.

Colonel Tim Collins is the former commanding officer of the 1st Battalion of the Royal Irish Regiment, whose eve-of-battle address to his troops in Iraq in March 2003 achieved worldwide acclaim.