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Sunday, June 27, 2010


Afghan war is a mission impossible: British MP

* Stewart says NATO should heavily reduce presence or risk a Vietnam-style defeat

LONDON: The war in Afghanistan is a “mission impossible” and Britain and other NATO allies should heavily reduce their presence next summer or risk a Vietnam-style defeat, a new Conservative MP Rory Stewart said on Saturday.

Stewart, a former soldier and diplomat, believes that a radical rethink is the only option if the NATO-led surge of 40,000 extra troops fails to achieve results by next July. “I do not believe we can win a counterinsurgency campaign. We are never going to have the time or the troop numbers. Even if you put 600,000 troops on the ground, I can’t see a credible, effective, legitimate Afghan Government emerging,” he said.

“If you keep going like this the backlash that will build up, the spectres of Vietnam that will emerge in the minds of the British public will mean that we will end up leaving entirely and the country will be much worse off.”

His message to US President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron is, “OK, you have sent your 40,000 extra troops. You are going to be in there until July of next year. But enough already, no more, let this be the last. Let’s start now talking about a plan B, not exit but reduction.”

As newly-elected member of parliament’s influential Foreign Affairs Select Committee, he believes that only a few thousand troops perhaps 1,000 of them British should remain in Afghanistan after next summer.

“You would have a few planes around but you would no longer do counter-insurgency. You would no longer be in the game of trying to hold huge swathes of rural Afghanistan.”

He conceded that a partial withdrawal would throw up dangers particularly for those Afghans who sided with the British. app

Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk

 

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