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You raise timely questions about Afghanistan's future from the perspective of Afghan civilians (Bin Laden is gone but will the west stay the course?, 11 May). Last year was the deadliest year for Afghan civilians since 2001, with at least 2,777 civilians killed, around 10% killed by their own security forces. Against the backdrop of deteriorating human security, it is concerning that senior military commanders – such as those in your article – persist in defining progress in Afghanistan as progress made towards weakening the insurgency, rather than as progress made towards providing a safe and secure environment for Afghans.
Afghans desperately want security and have high hopes for their own security forces. But as highlighted in the report we released this week, for most of the past decade there has been a striking lack of attention to the development of qualified security personnel in Afghanistan and, equally, a lack of attention to the institutional reform necessary to ensure that Afghan soldiers and police who abuse their authority are held to account. Lack of accountability for abusive conduct has serious political implications. As one investigator with the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission explained: "Everybody knows that the Taliban abuse human rights, but people have more hope from their own forces. And where there's a lot of hope, there's a lot of blame."
The UK government and its allies need to put the security of Afghan civilians at the heart of what we're trying to achieve – and how we talk about it.
Rebecca Barber
Humanitarian policy advisor, Oxfam
• The decision when to leave Afghanistan is a political not a military call (Don't abandon Afghanistan, plead generals, 11 May). The two "positive" examples cited in the article – the use of special forces to target mid-level Taliban commanders and the increase in insurgents joining reconciliation and rehabilitation programmes – do not stand up to scrutiny. The night raids are a variant of the Vietnam war's Phoenix programme that led to many of thousands of deaths, but had little impact on that conflict's outcome. It is also extremely unlikely that those who have signed up to the reconciliation process will prove any more constant than the thousands of Afghans who join the army and police, and subsequently disappeared with their bounties, and often their weapons.
Gavin Greenwood
Brighton, East Sussex
• Britain and the US went into Afghanistan to catch and kill Osama bin Laden. He's now dead, but the generals want us to "mission creep" and stay to prevent the Taliban from taking over. It's the politicians' role to decide policy. The generals' job is to carry it out, not dictate it. The job is done and we should withdraw.
Dudley Turner
Westerham, Kent
