Ill-Equipped For What, Exactly?

So a soldier died in Afghanistan because he was ill-equipped? Well, he certainly did. Because for what, exactly, was he supposed to be well-equipped? And why, exactly?

In other words, what are we doing in Afghanistan? What, exactly, would constitute victory or defeat there? And why, exactly? We merrily grow opium in our country "for medicinal purposes". We are allied to Islamist smack-smugglers in Kosovo.

And the reviled "Taliban" are exactly the same people as the revered "tribal elders", depending on what we happen to think of them at the time. On the same basis, the "Ba'athists" whom we are in the process of "rehabilitating" in Iraq are exactly the same people as the "Sunni insurgents" or the alleged Iraqi branch of that non-existent organisation, "al-Qaeda".

Answers, please.

Not that one expects any from the really ill-equipped, the morally and intellectually ill-equipped for public office, or even to be let out on their own (if at all). Those begin with George Bush and Tony Blair. But they certainly don't end with them.