Given their history there, the British would certainly know what it looks like to lose in Afghanistan, and in a diplomatic cable leaked to a French newspaper the British ambassador there says that’s precisely what’s happening:

The coded cable reproduced Wednesday in Le Canard EnchaÃ®nÃ© seems to be from France’s deputy ambassador to Afghanistan, FranÃ§ois Fitou, describing a conversation he had with the British ambassador to Kabul, Sherard Cowper-Coles.

It says Cowper-Coles believes the West’s war against Taliban forces in Afghanistan is being lost and the coalition that includes Canada’s Armed Forces should leave an “acceptable dictator” in charge of the country within five to 10 years.

“We have no alternative to supporting the United States in Afghanistan, but we should tell them that we want to be part of a winning strategy, not a losing one,” the cable paraphrases the ambassador as saying.