Having been unsuccessfully trying to destroy poor farmers’ opium poppies (bumper harvest this year) which would have left them to starve now at last there is the revolutionary idea from the Italian PRT (Provincial Reconstruction teams which are military groups giving security and aid) of giving farmers an alternative cash crop. However, the British troops have not done this yet and are still concentrating on killing and being killed although soon with better equipment to do it with. As they are trying to destroy poppy production which the people rely on for survival and the Taliban are fighting against those destroying the poppies and even paying some farmers to fight those destroying their poppies it is not a great surprise that the Taliban are more popular than the British troops in Helmand and the winning of hearts and minds has not been a resounding success. Kill one man who is seen as defending his livelihood results in the whole extended family fighting you and Afghans have very large families and are keen on revenge and honour. Throwing more and more troops and equipment at the problem is perhaps not the most sensible approach.