Army chief: Public not buying Afghanistan
Politicians "need to do better" in selling Afghanistan war to general public, head of UK army says
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By Darren Estwick. |  |
Monday, 19, Oct 2009 11:31
By Matthew Champion.
Politicians are failing to sell the war in Afghanistan to the general public, the head of the UK army has said.
General Sir David Richards, who became chief of the general staff this summer, said the authorities "need to do better" in justifying the Afghan mission.
Britain currently has 9,000 troops in theatre, with a further 500 due to be deployed. But a planned troop surge from the US is under consideration until doubts about the next Afghan government are resolved.
In a letter to the Daily Telegraph Gen Richards warned of the stark dangers of withdrawing from Afghanistan, one of the poorest countries in the world and which large parts of remain under Taliban control.
"It is not a coincidence that, since [Nato's] International Security Assistance Force mission began, al-Qaida has been unable to plan or orchestrate any further atrocities against the west from within Afghanistan's borders," he said.
"Nor should we overlook the impact of failure on the stability of the region. In particular, there would be a severe risk to the security of nuclear-armed Pakistan."
But after a summer in which 37 UK troops lost their lives, bringing the total death-toll to 221, Gen Richards accepted it was a "struggle" to persuade the public about the importance of the mission.
"We should not allow our security policy to be driven by opinion polls," he added.
This weekend Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg said unless a new strategy was implemented in Afghanistan his party would consider reversing its support for the war.
"Clearly no support that any political party gives for a conflict, for a war, is unconditional," he told the BBC.
"The present strategy is failing so it needs to be changed and the discussions which are taking place in Washington at the moment are immensely important in working out whether we have got a strategy which will succeed.
"If that strategy, if that new strategy is, in our judgement, the wrong strategy, which will condemn our soldiers to failure, then of course we will revisit our support, of course."