Former Liberal Democrat leader Lord Ashdown has accused ministers of "wasting the lives" of British soldiers killed in Afghanistan.
Lord Ashdown said that the international community had failed to put together a plan which could deliver peace and stability in the country, denying troops the ability to take advantage of their military victories over the Taliban.
The international community's former representative in Bosnia said that insufficient military and aid resources had been committed to Afghanistan. And he warned that a resolution of the problems in Afghanistan would not be reached without better international co-ordination and a regional agreement involving major powers like the US and China and neighbouring states including Iran.
Lord Ashdown welcomed US President Barack Obama's decision to appoint veteran diplomat Richard Holbrooke - who he worked with in the Balkans - as his "point man" on Afghanistan and Pakistan.
And he backed Mr Obama's plan to deliver a "surge" in US troops to the central Asian country.
But he told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme: "Absent three things, a surge isn't going to be enough - an international plan, which we haven't got; proper international co-ordination, so the international community talks with a single voice, which we haven't got; and a regional construct - something like the Dayton Agreement (for Bosnia) - in which neighbours including Iran have a role, underpinned by major powers such as the US and probably China."
Lord Ashdown added: "I fear that we are now - and it is a scandal - wasting the lives of our young men and women who we are putting in the front line in the most difficult circumstances when our political leaders have failed to produce any kind of plan that can take advantage of the victories they win over the Taliban at great cost.
"It is a very grave concern, but if you speak to senior commanders in Afghanistan, you will find they are saying the same thing. They are winning the battle, often at great cost in death and mutilation of our soldiers, but I am afraid to say the international community has completely failed to take advantage of the victories they have gained. Until we put that together, we will not begin to turn the situation around."
Lord Ashdown said that the international community was trying to stabilise Afghanistan with one twenty-fifth of the military personnel and one-fiftieth of the aid it committed to Bosnia.
"The truth of the matter is that the issue there is not the failure of the Afghan Government," he said. "The issue is the complete failure of the international community to have a plan and have priorities."
