Britain’s ambassador to Afghanistan has admitted privately he believes the NATO occupation is a failure. According to a French diplomat, Ambassador Sherard Cowper-Coles told a meeting in Kabul earlier this month, “The American strategy is destined to fail. The coalition presence, particularly the military presence, is part of the problem, not the solution.” Cowper-Coles went on to say sending more NATO troops would have “a perverse effect. It would identify us even more clearly as an occupying force and multiply the number of targets [by insurgents].” He also said the US-backed government of Hamid Karzai has such low public standing that Afghanistan would be better off in five to ten years under what he called “an acceptable dictator.”