Tonight:
4°c
Gordon Brown demands exit timetable in return for 2,000 more troops
Joe Murphy and Robert Fox10.09.09
Gordon Brown is preparing to send more troops to Afghanistan if other countries agree to increase their deployments.
Up to 2,000 extra soldiers would be earmarked to train the Afghan army to take on the Taliban, speeding up the eventual withdrawal of British forces, currently 9,000 strong.
The idea of a "send them in, train them up and get out" strategy could receive cross-party backing.
Senior Tories are pressing the idea with David Cameron being advised by military chiefs that it is the quickest way to quit Afghanistan.
Decisions will be taken after US commander General Stanley McChrystal publishes his long-delayed new strategic plan, which has gone through dozens of drafts because of wrangling over troops numbers between allies.
Mr Brown, who defied American pressure to promise extra troops this year, has now joined Germany's Angela Merkel and French president Nicolas Sarkozy in calling for a UN summit that would set "milestones" towards a withdrawal.
Some sources say Mr Brown used his recent meeting with General McChrystal in Afghanistan to lay down a demand that the general issued a plan with a proper timetable leading to a clear exit strategy for British combat forces.
The plan, due next week, is expected to call for thousands more American and European troops and civilian aid advisers to be sent to Afghanistan. High-level meetings are to be held in Washington and Afghanistan itself before the plan is unveiled next week.
A senior government source said Mr Brown was very concerned that any extra British contribution would be matched by a big increase in numbers from France, which has 3,000 troops in the country, and Germany, which is due to have more than 4,400 by the end of the year.
"Burden sharing is very important," said the source. "The meeting in Afghanistan was very much about the shape of General McChrystal's report and to agree the importance of Afghanistan."
A spokesman for Mr Cameron said: "We have always said that if there was a request for more troops we should look at it sympathetically."
However, the cross-party consensus on Afghanistan was under mounting strain with the growing evidence of mass fraud in the presidential elections.
Shadow foreign secretary William Hague said the mission could backfire if troops were seen to be propping up a corrupt government. He warned: "We may fatally undermine our standing in the eyes of Afghans if we are seen to rubber-stamp disputed election results which disenfranchise sections of the population."
More than 2,000 allegations of voting fraud are being probed - including a claim that a tribe of 30,000 people were deprived of their votes.
Whitehall sources denied they would endorse the election result before it was approved by an independent UN-backed election commission.
President Hamid Karzai claims to be ahead by about 54 per cent to 28. But his rival Abdullah Abdullah said he was the victim of mass cheating.
Reader views (8)
If you are interested in this mess simply Go on-line, Google "the fish cheer" and substitute Afghanistan for Vietnam in the lyrics. NOTHING has changed.
- Steve, Brentford
I demand an exit timetable for Brown the Clown and his rotten discredited government
- Andrew, Ely UK
Yeah that's it Broon, pull the troops out before the job is done. Half-arsed Gordon strikes again.
This is simple pandering politics before the general election. Usual low politics from scummy socialists.
- Frank, Home Counties, England.
My money is on the elections there being approved by the 'international community' based on the premise that a partial democratic election result in Afghanistan is better than none at all. (Despite the obvious fraudulent behaviour by the current puppet leader Karzai).
Having said that you only need to look at the chads debacle and voting electoral fraud here in the UK to appreciate that the 'West' isn't a perfect example of voting either!
However this may allow the US, UK et al to say we've brought democracy back to Afghanistan.
I'm not convinced that democracy is actually what the Afghanistani people want and that is the crux of the matter. Will the International Community still need to have a military presence there in 5 yrs time to ensure that a quasi fraudulent election can still occur?
You can drag a horse to water but you can't make it drink.
PS It would be nice to have a fly on the wall at the meetings between Karzai and the US regarding concerns about electoral fraud!
- Neil Stewart, Clay Cross, Derbyshire
I've lost count the number of times Brown and Blair are going to effect an exit timetable for the troops in Afghanistan. It's pre-election garbage from this poor excuse for a prime minister who has lost ALL credibility with the British people.
- Bingham Macnamara, lymington, hampshire
Is he in favour of the fight, or isn't he? Sending in extra troops in return for knowing when they can leave shows the usual Brown traits of indecisiveness, playing both sides, double-talk, in fact the traits that make him so very very popular.
- Phil Jones, London UK
I demand the Politburo's exit timetable from No. 10
- Bj, London
Ah Crash Gordon nobody likes him.
- Georgie, Islington, London
