Letter: In Brief

Sir: J J Fergusson ("The Taliban have won - now they must join the world", 11 August), is right: they have won. But they will not be joining the world as he suggests, and they are already grown up. They are victorious thanks to support from the Pakistan army, financed by Saudi Arabia, which pays up only if its clients install a fundamentalist Islamic regime. This the Taliban have done, and there is no reason to suppose that they will be willing to modify it in accordance with Western requirements.

Fundamentalist Islam is on the march; there is no misunderstanding; their values and those of the West cannot be reconciled.

D S HOSKINS

Edinburgh