Here we struck a problem which had dogged the campaign to date - civilian reconstruction officers from the FCO and DfID could not leave the heavily protected base in Lashkar Gah.

So it fell to a military officer to fill this role. Major Tom Tughendhat spent over a month living with, advising and drinking tea with Mullah Salam.

He offered counsel on how to set up a local government, as well as assisting Salam in reaching out to the local tribes who, as we had suspected, never had any intention of "rising up".

Fence-sitting, as history has proven on many occasions, is an Afghan specialty.

The period of Taliban misrule had also made the local economy heavily dependent on the opium industry. Several tons of opium and significant quantities of heroin and drug manufacturing equipment were destroyed after we recaptured the town.

But how were we to replace it?

We had to demonstrate the immediate benefits of Afghan government rule. We started very simple cash-for-work programmes, firstly to repair the damage caused by previous battles but very quickly thereafter to develop the infrastructure necessary to allow the local economy to grow.

Most of it was manual labour but it kept young men employed and pumped money into the local economy.

The psychological and physical defeat of the Taliban in Musa Qala also led to the possibility of over 200 Taliban fighters laying down their arms and coming over to the government side.

Instrumental in bringing about the negotiations was Michael Semple, who as deputy to the European Union special representative for Afghanistan, had been engaged in reaching out to the Taliban.

Semple also brought enormous wisdom and insight as a consequence of living in Afghanistan for many years and speaking fluent Dari. Meetings were held, Sir Sherard visited the HQ and, together with Semple and ourselves, a plan was mapped out.

Further outreach was conducted, plans and resources firmed up. A tipping point was reached.

The point came when Semple was required to brief the governor of Helmand. Within minutes he was arrested for "unauthorised activities".

Within days Semple was expelled from Afghanistan. An enormous opportunity had been lost.

The complexities of Afghan politics conspired - once more - to put short-term political considerations before longer term progress.