Britain and the United States are forging a new approach to the Taliban problem in Afghanistan. It looks like the “if you can’t beat them, join them” philosophy. Britain’s Foreign Secretary David Miliband announced Monday that some Taliban fighters could join the Afghan government. Such fighters, still in the process of terrorizing British military units, could be reintegrated into the government if they renounce violence, he said.

Government and military officials believe the recent operation that has pushed the Taliban back in a vital part of the lawless Helmand province in southern Afghanistan has created the right conditions to negotiate with “second tier” Taliban leaders.

Lt. Gen. Simon Mayall, deputy chief of Britain’s defense staff, said the operation “gives the Taliban ‘second tier’ room to reconnect with the government, and this is absolutely at the heart of this operation.”

Second-tier Taliban leaders control large numbers of Taliban terrorist fighters in southern Afghanistan.

This significant change in strategy boils down to the U.S. and Britain capitulating to the Taliban after eight years of war.

Douglas Alexander, the UK’s international development secretary, admitted that some of the public might be unhappy with the new tactic. Twenty British soldiers have died this month fighting the very terrorists the British are reaching out to.

Allowing the Taliban to join the Afghan government would be a victory for the terrorists and would return Afghanistan to a situation similar to what it was in before the war started. Ironically, it is after a successful military operation that Britain and the U.S. are seeking to reconcile the Taliban with the Afghan government.

This policy is a defeat in all but name. The world’s greatest military power and its British ally cannot defeat the Taliban. This demonstrates what theTrumpet.com has been forecasting for many years: America has won its last war.

The U.S. and Britain lack the political will to use their combined great military might to achieve victory. Instead, they are settling for a foreign policy that emboldens terrorist enemies rather than solving the Islamic terrorism problem. To read an in-depth analysis of the U.S. and Britain’s policy toward Islamic terrorism, read “The Ostrich, the Warriors and the Whirlwind.”