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Brown speeds up troops' exit with switch to training Afghan soldiers
Joe Murphy, Political Editor4 Sep 2009
Gordon Brown today accelerated his exit strategy from Afghanistan.
A major shift in strategy will focus on training Afghan soldiers to take over the fight against the Taliban.
A target to train 134,000 Afghan soldiers will be brought forward from the end of 2011 to the end of next year.
There is no timetable for withdrawal but Mr Brown will indicate that Britain can pull out with head held high once Afghanistan is equipped and trained to stand alone.
British troop will also focus on a “hearts and minds” approach to the local population.
Officials believe that an Afghan army more than 200,000 strong will be needed, which could be achieved in 2011.
The strategy of training Afghans to take over was backed by former Desert Rats commander Maj-Gen Patrick Cordingley who said: “That's absolutely right, two to three years. I think a time should be imposed on that.”
However, Labour MP Eric Joyce, who resigned as a ministerial aide last night, stepped up his attack on the war.
He said Labour would be “in deep trouble” at the next election if it failed to heed public disquiet.
The Prime Minister was also using his speech to the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London to defend the war that has dragged on for eight years.
He spoke as the bodies of two more soldiers killed in the conflict were flown home.
Sgt Stuart Millar, 40, from Inverness, and Pte Kevin Elliott, 24, from Dundee, died in a blast in Lashkar Gah District, southern Helmand, on Monday.
The soldiers, both from the Black Watch, are thought to have been killed by a rocket-propelled grenade when they were attacked by insurgents while on foot patrol.
Tributes were paid to L-Cpl Richard James Brandon, 24, a father who was engaged to be married, who was killed in Helmand on Wednesday by a roadside bomb.
Aides say the Prime Minister knows the public are worried about the casualty rate and 212 British losses but he believes people do not want to hand the Taliban a victory by quitting early.
Mr Brown will say: “People ask what success in Afghanistan would look like. The answer is that we will have succeeded when our troops are coming home because the Afghans are doing the job themselves.”
He will reveal he regularly soul-searches about whether the campaign is justified but always concludes that it is crucially important.
“Each time I ask myself if we are doing the right thing by being in Afghanistan and if we can justify sending our young men and women to fight for this cause, my answer has always been yes,” he will say.
“For when the security of our country is at stake we cannot walk away.”
However, Mr Brown's long-planned attempt to win back public support for the conflict was undermined by the shock resignation last night of Mr Joyce, the ministerial aide to Defence Secretary Bob Ainsworth.
Mr Joyce stormed out after writing a scathing resignation letter that damned the war aims and the levels of equipment and support given to soldiers.
“I do not think the public will accept for much longer that our losses can be justified by simply referring to the risk of greater terrorism on our streets,” wrote Mr Joyce, a former Army major.
“Nor do I think we can continue with the present level of uncertainty about the future of our deployment in Afghanistan.”
Reader views (30)
So where are the helicopters then? When do the new Chinooks arrive? When do we cut the benefit jockey army, the fine meals for prisoners, the free housing for strangers, the overmanned and incompetent NHS?
- Jamal Akhbar, Edinburgh, 04/09/2009 16:41
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Gordon Brown your priority and focus is to accelerating your exit from the government. We want you out now.
- Max, London, 04/09/2009 16:15
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How many more young men have to die before this bafoon wakes up to the fact that the West are not going to win this war? Only more good young men will die because of our politicians egos. Unfortunately down the years it has always been thus. My great grandfather was out there in the 2nd Anglo Afghanistan War in 1879. It just goes to show how long we have been fighting in Afghanistan. If Gordon is worried about terrorists getting onto our streets, bring the soldiers home and put them on our borders to stop them and all the other undesirables getting here in the first place. This government has told us so many lies since they have been in power and Gordon has supparsed even the great story teller of all, namely one Tony Blair, so no one will believe a word of what he says today. Why McNutly, head of the expenses fiddle league table (allegedly)was the only one to come out and speak up for Gordon is rather odd. Were all his ministers mobiles deliberately switched off or is a coup to dispose of Gordon being hatched. Maybe they didn`t want to be associated with him on such an unpopular subject as the party conference season is getting close. Mandy has also gone walkabout. All rather odd!
- B Gare, Norfolk Gorleston, 04/09/2009 15:14
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I, for one, am getting fed up with his pathetic religious moralising."
Then stop goiung it Noah. As if a biblical name can hide the real you behind the moralising
- Keith Price, Luton England, 04/09/2009 15:07
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remember the statement made by Bwown and co about bringing troops back from Iraq - it took two years of announcements and predictions.This government cannot be trusted.The speech today was incredibly insincere,just rattled off as if it was something to be said as quickly as possible.
- Frank, london, 04/09/2009 14:52
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I didn't think it was possible to find a prime minister more despised than Blair,but Brown has managed it easily,he fumbles and mumbles while Britain slides into the abyss,and more of our brave lads get butchered everyday.He is incapable of listening to advice,the mans sheer contempt and arrogance know no bounds,labour are a dead duck in politics now and for ever.
- Gulag Prisoner, Canterbury Communist Britain., 04/09/2009 14:34
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Why keep a standing army on stand by at great expense just in case of a major conflict? Why not just conscript as and when required all able bodied personnel under 45. That makes more sense; and just train up the Reserves and TA.
- Dhan Raj, Basildon, 04/09/2009 14:15
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Another load of hot air. He just doesn't get it and in the meantime it won't stop UK troops being killed or maimed as well as innocent people in a war that is abjectly wrong.
- Peter, Vienna, Austria, 04/09/2009 14:14
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although in my opinion we should never have gone into either iraq or afganistan and therefore this is the correct decision. This decision could be argued as a knee
jerk political decision based on lack of public support for both the hopeless and vain war and the labour party, who are quickly heading into the arid political wilderness. It could thus be argued that the raison d'etre for our warmongering blair and brown was always a cynical ploy to toady to the states and keep the british public traumatised in the glaring headlights of imaginary terror.Wars won, or lost rarely, if ever solve the long term social and political problems and meerly kill too many naieve, but brave forces personel and the many ,so called, collateral accidental civilian victims.
hasty and humiliating exits from korea, vietnam and untold other conflicts since have patently failed to bring about the terror and chaos that was the given reason for conflict in the first place.even the seemingly just ww2, although seemingly won, came at a heavy price and the once mighty british empire fast eroded since.like the greek, eygptian, roman and so many other great empires, superpowers all have a sell by date and it is entirely possible that american empire building will crumble long before it could be considered to have reached its zenith.
Thus Brown is holding a hot potatoe which he has a problem dropping.with your foot on an angry tigers tail you know not whether to lift your foot, or stay firmly on the spot
- M.O'Brien, london.uk, 04/09/2009 14:00
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A couple of weeks ago, the defence secretary for that week announced that British troops would be in Afghanistan for another 40 years. Now the PM is saying something else.
When will this man ever have the courage to make up his mind about anything?
- Nobby Clark, Perth, the Scottish one, 04/09/2009 13:58
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It was said that in the great war our soldiers
were lions led by donkeys- it's still the same except that this time it's not the generals as donkeys but
this lame government- they give a bad name to donkeys...
- John Watts, Chislehurst, kent, 04/09/2009 13:48
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So say on average 2 killed per day, which seems to be the norm at the moment, by the end of 2010 that's over another 800 lives lost, and for what? A war we can never win. All the terrorism that has been in this country thus far have all been home grown. It's all very well for people like Frank, Home Counties saying stay until the job is done but its not their spouces or children coming home in boxes is it! Once all the troops have left the whole country will revert into bloody chaos again anyway. If they want to send people out to lose their lives let them send all the social dregs of this country. If you stuck a bomb under the lot of them you wouldn't do five bob's worth of damage anyway, and bring our troops home, now!
- Sue, Orpington, Kent, 04/09/2009 13:38
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head held high thats if its not blown off....get them out now..
- Rsaviour, london england, 04/09/2009 13:28
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The fact that they have wheeled out Tony McNulty says it all. They now can not even find a cabinet minister to come out and defend their stance on the war. I personally do not want to be represented by this Government any longer.
- Fay Mcademy, London, 04/09/2009 13:08
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How can you train others to do a job which you cant do yourself. Stop trying to please the US Gordon and, bring the troops home NOW.
T H Leds
- Thomas Hayes, Leeds UK, 04/09/2009 13:04
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My father was in the Rifle Brigade during the nineteen thirties and fighting in this country although I believe it was called the North West Frontier then. We could not win then, the Russians tried and failed so what the hell are today's young soldiers out there. Use the troops/money instead to man our frontiers and keep the drugs/terrorists away. Surely all Britain would go for that idea. Do this Mr. Brown before you resign.
Amber in Mitcham
- Amber In Mitcham, Mitcham Surrey, 04/09/2009 13:00
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How can the war in Afghanistan possibly be justified by the assertion that it is keeping terrorism off of our streets! Is Gordon Brown seriously saying that if we were to withdraw, the Taliban would load up their donkeys, trek across Europe and carry out bombing outrages in our cities! Surely the very fact that we are in Afghanistan encourages and gives justification to the "Head Bangers" already in our country and those from the other Terrorist exporting countries to do the job without the help of the Talaban, not that I'm convinced that our presence actually discourages any potential Talaban terrorist entering our country! You just have to look at the number of fit young Afghan men queuing up in Calais!
- Ij, Wisbech, 04/09/2009 12:53
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Liar!
- Keith Lonsdale, Doncaster, 04/09/2009 12:38
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I just hope he does not bring his faith, his beliefs and his soul searching together with his moral upbringing into the speach once more. I, for one, am getting fed up with his pathetic religious moralising.
- Noah More, London, 04/09/2009 12:36
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Yeah yeah, you do a lot of talking Broon. But do you really think this is going to be a vote winner? General elections make politicians claim the outrageous. The fact is we should stay in Afghanistan until the job is done, not because you are whoring your politics for votes.
- Frank, Home Counties, England., 04/09/2009 12:20
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What is he waiting for,another 20 or 30 men killed.Get out now,its not our bloody war.
- Dave, london, 04/09/2009 12:13
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Any chance of pulling your feeble government out of Downing street early Gordon ? The sooner you go the sooner this country can regain a little of the composure it has lost in the last ten or so years and the sooner our troops can either be brought home or funded to a point were they can do the job YOUR government dispatched them to do. The people of this land want a strong government that WILL make the difficult decisions, and WILL get on with the job they were elected to do not a flaccid, dysfunctional group of career politicians only interested in their own selves and rehashing old, failed policies. Just go. Labour out.
- Cratchet, HLC, LINCOLNSHIRE., 04/09/2009 11:34
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Lets think this one through, Election next year Need I say more.
- Dw, Londoon, 04/09/2009 11:17
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Brown the conviction politician is swayed by newspaper headlines again. If his belief in the mission is so weak why have young men been dying for the last 7yrs?
- Mark, London, 04/09/2009 11:13
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Hope he gets a move on and gets out heroes out before the electorate evict the bottler from Downing Street.
- Ted, London, 04/09/2009 10:49
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What the knee-jerk critics have overlooked is that it was Tony Blair that got us into this war. As with everything else, he's swanned off with that cheesy grin leaving others to clear up his mess. If Gordon Brown gets us out of Afghanistan, that can only be a good thing for all concerned.
- Austen, London, 04/09/2009 10:28
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This year, next year, sometime never.
OPS !!! Sorry there will be an election next year.
Possibly MARCH !!!
- Bernard Parke, GUILDFORD, 04/09/2009 10:00
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Shut up Brown, nobody is listening to your lies.
- David, Fleet UK, 04/09/2009 09:47
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More abject spin and waffle from Gormless Brown.
GET BRITISH TROOPS OUT OF AFGHANISTAN NOW.
IT IS A WAR THE WEST WILL NOT WIN.
- Reuben Camara, Morecambe Compound, EUSSR, 04/09/2009 09:04
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O Gordon, all those years of cutting back on the armed forces the chickens are coming home to roost, trouble is men are dying.
- Shallotman, Basildon, 04/09/2009 09:03
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