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Miliband: Afghan war is not a fight to the death
Nicholas Cecil, Deputy Political Editor17 Nov 2009
Britain is not engaged in a fight to the death with the Taliban, David Miliband said today.
The Foreign Secretary said insurgents should be urged to lay down their weapons with offers of financial support and of political influence.
“Our goal is not a fight to the death,” he told the Nato parliamentary assembly in Edinburgh.
Afghans had to be convinced that the West would not cut and run leaving the Taliban to return to power, he added.
Mr Miliband said tackling corruption in president Hamid Karzai's government, dividing non-hardline Taliban to reintegrate into peaceful society and working with Afghanistan's neighbours, particularly Pakistan, to crush al Qaeda, were crucial.
Mr Miliband rejected calls for UK troops to be withdrawn.
He said: “We cannot leave a vacuum which the Taliban will quickly fill and, under their umbrella, al Qaeda quickly follow.”
Nato Secretary-General Anders Rasmussen urged its members to respond positively to President Barack Obama's call for more Nato forces to boost a troop surge of up to 40,000.
He said: “If we were to walk away and turn our backs on Afghanistan, al Qaeda would be back in a flash.”
Reader views (1)
we WILL cut and run before the next election when the Government and the Labour Party realises than continued participation in the country is a vote loser!
The British public simply no longer support the conflict in Afghanistan.
- Manny Goldstein, London, England, 17/11/2009 17:20
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