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Gordon Brown was today warned that the campaign against the Taliban in Afghanistan risks being jeopardised by doing “too little, too late”.
Lord Guthrie, former chief of the Defence Staff, urged the Government to swiftly deploy a further 500 troops.
A leading critic of the Prime Minister over the war, the peer accused Mr Brown of being “unsympathetic” towards the armed forces when he was Chancellor. Poor investment in the military had led to a shortage of helicopters and armoured vehicles, he added.
Lord Guthrie believes that this led to “unnecessary deaths” of British soldiers. However, he now believes Mr Brown is starting to recognise the importance of the military.
“I think now he's beginning to get it,” he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme. More funding is being poured into the Afghan campaign, ministers are seeking to persuade the public of the need for it to deter future terror attacks in the UK, he added, and a new political strategy is being drawn up.
“I just hope it's not too little, too late,” Lord Guthrie said. “We have really got to show great commitment if we are to make progress in Afghanistan.”
He also denied that the battle against the Taliban was “another Vietnam”.
Mr Brown is delaying increasing the number of British troops to 9,500 until President Obama unveils his strategy to defeat the insurgency.
Mr Obama is considering a troop surge of up to 40,000 but has so far failed to persuade most other Nato countries to send more soldiers. He is expected to announce his decision within days.
Lord Guthrie said that the “ordinary kit has never been better” for Britain's soldiers and that the Government was now getting the message on equipment. Foreign Secretary David Miliband yesterday stressed that the Allied mission was not a “fight to the death” but needed to be combined with a political strategy to spilt the Taliban.
Reader views (4)
Pull the troops out. Stop spending money on an overseas war with no outcome. The UK is falling apart & a high percentage of UK earners tax gets spent on this farce. We need the money in the UK. Stop wasting taxpayers contributions overseas.
- Dom, london, 18/11/2009 17:16
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I expect that the Taliban will be sending Gordon a letter telling him to send more troops because they are starting a bonus system to encourage more killings of British Soldiers
They want to up the present tally from a couple per week to at five or six.
- Thomas Hayes, Leeds UK, 18/11/2009 13:41
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Brown has proposed a multi-nation conference in London early next year to try and resolve the Afghanistan conundrum, made more pronounced because of Brown's dithering, but this proposal is yet another ploy, by Brown, to kick this into the long grass. Since 1997 this poor excuse for a Prime Minister has withheld funds from the military and now the chickens are coming home to roost.
- Bingham Macnamara, lymington, hampshire, 18/11/2009 11:17
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Lord Guthrie is almost certainly right. It´s up to Gordon Brown now to admit he has made past financial mistakes over military spending, get his finger out and allocate sufficient funds for our troops in Afghanistan and Iraq.
- Graham Rodhouse, Helmond, Netherlands, 18/11/2009 10:52
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