Panorama preview at the Frontline tonight

At the Frontline Club in London tonight, where we will be previewing a Panorama film, directed by Ben Anderson, on Helmand. Anderson's film, Mission Accomplished? The Secrets of Helmand, shows that American combat troops have already withdrawn, training has been reduced, not accelerated - and the Afghan Security Forces are not ready to take over. Casualty rates are as high as ever, they are just all Afghan now, the Taliban are as strong as ever, locals say their lives have not improved and the police still look like part of the problem. 
I will be chairing the discussion following the screening of the film. Also on the panel are Dawood Azami, former BBC World Service Bureau Chief and Editor in Kabul, and Will Pike who served as a British Army Major in Afghanistan, and on the Afghan Desk at the MOD before leaving the Army in late 2007.

Frontline discussion on the Afghan National Army

I will be chairing a discussion at the Frontline Club in London next Thursday 21 June on 'Can the Afghan National Army prevent civil war?' There will be a great panel for the discussion, including Horia Mosadiq, Afghanistan researcher at Amnesty International; Brigadier James Chiswell CBE MC, MOD Head of Overseas Operations; Dawood Azami, visiting scholar and award winning broadcast journalist working for the BBC World Service in London; Jonathan Steele,  Guardian columnist, roving foreign correspondent and author of Ghosts of Afghanistan; and Leo Tomlin, Cabinet Office Deputy Director Asia and Russia, and former Deputy Head of Helmand Provincial Reconstruction Team.

More details can be found here.  Hope you can make it.