Training Afghan troops so they are equipped to kill their trainers.

Every new report about deaths in Afghanistan can only heighten the revulsion at a deeply unpopular and unjustified war which is being prolonged by the military and politicians when they could end it.

This Wednesday, David Cameron will read out in parliament the names of two more British soldiers killed in Afghanistan.

That makes nine British soldiers killed in the last three weeks, taking the total to 407.

The end of 2014 is the scheduled date for British troops to leave the country. Which means close to three more years of pointless deaths like those of the two killed today, and of Afghans who are daily being killed at a higher rate than at any time in the last ten years of war.

Cameron will yet again spout the same nonsense about the dead soldiers having sacrificed their lives defending Britain's vital national security interests.

He will say their mission was to stop Afghanistan being a safe haven to Al Qaeda, when he knows -- as the CIA has confirmed repeatedly -- there are no more than a handful of Al Qaeda activists in Afghanistan and the 100,000 foreign troops are really fighting a resistance movement which has a single aim -- to drive out the occupiers of their country.

"Our task is simple," Cameron will tell parliament -- just as he did following the deaths of six UK soldiers earlier this month. "It is to equip the Afghan government and the forces of Afghanistan with the capability and the capacity to take care of their own national security."

The news that two soldiers have been killed at the hands of an Afghan soldier only underlines the desperate failure of the war and the senseless loss of life. This strategy for departure clearly lies in tatters. Despite billions of dollars poured into training, there is no possibility of building a strong pro-western army by the deadline.

Recent events make it even harder. The burning of copies of the Koran by US troops, along with the murder of 17 civilians in their beds by a US sergeant, have created a changed climate in the country. The alleged killer, US Staff Sergeant Robert Bales, has now been flown out of the country, despite the Afghan parliament’s wishes that he should stand trial in Afghanistan.

Such actions point up the colonial nature of the war. Even President Karzai, installed by the Americans after the Taliban were overthrown in 2001, has demanded that NATO troops --given their unpopularity with the Afghan people -- should be confined to barracks.

Karzai’s instinct for political self preservation reflects reality. He knows that the military opposition to the troops is growing. He also knows that there is increasing political opposition among Afghans. Demonstrations and protests have grown in recent weeks.

Despite the public determination of Obama and Cameron to maintain that everything is on course for a smooth withdrawal in 2014, today's deaths of the two British soldiers will be another warning signal that NATO troops will remain under threat from their supposed partners. In truth, Obama and Cameron are privately already trying to push for a more rapid exit.

In the meantime, the civilian death rate is rising, and the killing of soldiers continues. The obscene disregard for human life from politicians means that they will prolong the war for political reasons even though they could end it now.

One consequence of this is the way the war is being brought home. Last week an Iraqi woman, Shaima Alawadi, was bludgeoned at her home in California and later died. Beside her a note read: ‘Go back to your own country. You’re a terrorist.’

This was a hate crime, but a hate crime in a context, as were the recent shootings in Toulouse. The context is the hatred that has been fostered by a war which brutalises those involved and which demonises the people whose countries are being attacked.

The blood of Shaima Alawadi, like the blood of the two soldiers killed today, is on the hands of the politicians who continue to wage an unjustfied war, knowing it to be lost, and knowing that it is opposed by the overwhelming majority of people in their own countries.