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Barry, your argumentation does not add up. Basically you say that our soldiers and those of other countries have to be present in Afghanistan because Pakistan has nuclear weapons.
No British minister or military officer has ever stated this.
So it's not conclusive as an argument and won't bring us anywhere, in particular because Britain's military presence in Afghanistan is set to end in 2014.
We all know that the Taliban will be stronger and more popular by then among the Pashtun Afghans, and everyone in Britain knows that every British soldier killed from now until the day they leave that country is a wasted life, someone who died for no reason at all, as the Taliban will be in power as soon as the British and allied soldiers return home.
This is so unacceptable, and it has absolutely nothing to do with Pakistani nuclear weapons.
Your whole point is wrong, when you say the Pakistani Taleban could take over in Pakistan. They can't, because they too are Pashtuns, or closely related to them, and live in northern Pakistan, in regions bordering on to Afghanistan, whereas the majority of Pakistanis are closer related to the Indians.
The Taleban are an ethnic group, more than religious or political, and stand no chance of gaining power - in particular through force, in Pakistan.
Another point you got wrong is northern Afghanistan. The Taliban never controlled that area even when they were in power, because the north of that country is inhabited by Tajiks and Uzbeks, who had - and have - their own militias, and they prevented the Taliban from ever gaining control of the northern areas.
The Afghan situation is purely ethnical, as too the situation in Pakistan. The nuclear weapons cannot fall in the hands of the Taliban, who belong to ethnical populations, or tribes, living in northern Pakistan and about tho thirds of Afghanistan.
I know from experience that you will totally ignore these facts, and go on equiperating the Taleban to an international terrorist group called Al Quaeda, which the Taleban inherited when they came to power in the 90s, after Al Quaeda was already present and were allies of the Mujahedin who fought the Soviet soldiers.
At the end of the day, when our soldiers do pull out of Helmand province, every man and woman in our Forces killed there will have been sacrificed for nothing, for no reason. And all the wounded will have endured suffering to the end of their day for nothing.
And Pakistan will still have nuclear weapons.
Fortunately, much of what you are saying is not said by government ministers in Westminster, and hopefully we will see a change of policy very soon, long before 2014, and a British withdrawal from Afghanistan, especially since Liam Fox has been disgraced and dismissed.