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Afghan war 'will shape century'

Defence Secretary John Hutton has said the Afghanistan war is a "fundamentally important" one which will "define much of the politics of the 21st century".

He said Nato's European members must do more if it was to "come through this test of its resolve and character".

Lessons learned there and in Iraq would lead to a "transformation" of policy by the UK Ministry of Defence.

Asked if the mission had changed to a counter-insurgency one, Mr Hutton said lessons had to be learned from the "complicated operations" in Iraq and Afghanistan as they were going to "define the characteristics of future conflict for decades" and "much of the politics of the 21st Century".

Read entire article at BBC