The 30-strong patrol of US marines and Afghan National Police moves slowly through the Musa Qala bazaar, alert to any suspicious movements around them. This town in North Helmand may be held by coalition forces, but it is far from secure.

There has been a spate of kidnappings and persistent rumours that a suicide bomber has slipped into the town, so the patrol is on high alert. Curious eyes take in the presence of foreign reporters.

A little boy runs up to the soldiers, oblivious to the heavy armoury they are carrying, and grins cheekily. One of our group shouts out a “Salaam” and gets a friendly response.

In Afghan terms, this represents progress. Six months ago the bazaar was deserted, the population dispersed by the fierce bombardment that preceded the expulsion of the Taleban who controlled it.

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Today, as on any other day, as many as 2,000 people crowd in to the market to buy a surprisingly rich choice of fruit, vegetables and other groceries, piled high on wooden stalls under flapping canvas awnings.

Musa Qala seems a desolate place of broken houses and rubble, though we are assured it has a clinic, a mosque and a paid workforce. The building in which we sleep was once a hotel and then the headquarters of the Taleban, but is now little more than a concrete shell, pock-marked by bullet-holes. The town's security depends on its resident defence force - 5 Scots (the Argylls) and the Afghan National Army.

Its population is testimony to its instability - estimates vary from 3,000 to 20,000. We sleep outside, under mosquito nets, taking care to shade our torches in the night, woken occasionally by the sound of artillery fire (which we hope is ours not theirs).

This remains a highly charged war zone. Three days ago, while we were in the district centre - the army camp on the outskirts of Musa Qala - three platoons of D Company of the Argylls came back from a 48-hour patrol to the north of the town, in the course of which they came under heavy fire on three separate occasions. Private David Poderis, 37, showed us tangible evidence of the Taleban's ferocity in the form of two neat bullet-holes in his helmet.

No one doubts that this is the town the Taleban have to retake if they are to restore their credentials in Afghanistan. No one here believes that they will succeed. But what no one knows for certain is who will win the peace, or how it will be defined. Brigadier Andrew Mackay, the former commander of British forces, says that Musa Qala is a place that was “iconic for all the wrong reasons, and it's now iconic for all the right reasons”. What he means is that Musa Qala is the test-bed for the British policy of “an Afghan solution for an Afghan problem”.

On present evidence, that solution remains a distant one. Beating the Taleban - if that can ever be finally done - is only a part of it. Winning over a suspicious and battle-weary population is another.

That became clear from the moment we arrived from the Forward Operational Base called FOB Edinburgh, an outpost more like something out of Beau Geste than a military encampment - heavily fortified walls made out of great pillars of canvas-protected sand and rubble, surmounted by Sangars, the lookout posts from which suspect movements are detected.

We came in from the North West in a convoy of Mastiff armoured cars, along a track that had been cleared of roadside bombs the day before. At one point, we spotted an Afghan who came out of a house, gave us a suspicious glance, then disappeared around the corner. A Taleban with evil intent, or a local farmer? No way of finding out.

The Mastiff stopped, waited, then moved on slowly. Then we were inside the district centre at Musa Qala, a self-contained camp and home to a substantial number of Scottish and Afghan troops since February. The conditions can only be described as basic. Certain facilities would be as familiar to a Second World War veteran as today's jocks. The “desert rose” - a tube rammed into the sand that functions as a loo. A plywood privy and a hole in the ground for more serious operations.

A Warrior armoured vehicle turning up outside a rural settlement is hardly likely to strike a reassuring note. The soldiers do their best, leaving the vehicles outside, before patrolling inside, despite the dangers.And they are good ambassadors. Corporal Donald McPhee of the Royal Highland Fusliers told me that the most satisfying part of the job was making contact with the villagers.

“I'm a married man, and it just breaks my heart to see those wee kids with nae shoes,” he said. “We give them army biscuits, which they love. It makes a massive difference.”

In the end, if the British mission is to work it will be the responsibility of people such as Justin Holt, a former Lieutenant Colonel with the Royal Marines, who is “stabilisation” adviser to Musa Qala and its governor, the controversial Mullah Salaam. His task is daunting - to work with a governor who is widely distrusted, to battle corruption, to create a workable administration, to rebuild trust in the law, and generally to introduce order into the chaos of a society that he describes as “like 13th Century England with mobile phones”. He adds: “And 13th Century England did not have to grapple with the opium trade.”

He has grown a beard in Afghan style to reassure the local Shura, or ruling council, that he is a person of trust. He has concentrated on the dreary but vital issues of getting people properly paid, ensuring that money does not simply disappear into the wrong pockets. He believes that this can best be done by working with Mullah Salaam, rather than against him. He has won respect from both the military and the Afghans for his tact - and his firmness.

Only ten days ago, in the governor's absence, he arrested his 15 year old son “Tubby” - one of 27 children by five different wives - for ordering the release of one of the governor's militia, who had been held in prison. It was a massive challenge to the governor's power and caused shock at the local Shura. When Mullah Salaam returned to Musa Qala he told Holt: “I would rather you had shot my son than imprisoned him. It would have been less insulting to me.”

But Holt stuck to his guns, got the local chief of police to impose his authority and told Salaam that nothing like that should happen again. Relations have been restored - for now. On such small foundations peace may be built. Whether it is a peace that will ever be fully accepted in this divided country is doubtful. But that is the experiment, for better or worse, that we are embarked on in Afghanistan. I suspect it will be many, many years before its outcome is known.

Musa Qala

Pre-2002 Controlled by Taleban through tribal leaders

Jan 2006 British troops enter town

Oct 2006 British and Taleban forces agree to withdraw from town, leaving power to local population

Feb 2007 Taleban assault force takes control of the town

July Coalition and Afghan troops kill about 160 insurgents

December Big ground assault by coalition and Afghan troops — Battle of Musa Qala — retakes the town

Sources: MoD; Nato; Jamestown Foundation; Times archive

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