Afghanistan - The Plan

What plan you may well ask, there has been no plan, no strategy either. The politicians are making it up as they go along.

Yesterday General Stanley McChrystal, NATO's top commander in Afghanistan, gave a well-delivered presentation to the International Institute of Strategic Studies and blew Gordon Brown's excuses for this war out of the water.

The main points of his speech indicated that there was never a comprehensive plan for the Afghan war and there is no simple solution. Of course the politicians had their reasons for this war but the public are never going to hear them, because if they were voiced public support would disintegrate. They know that and we know they're lying to us. We have 9,000 troops involved in this political game - men and women who promised to protect us, the people of Britain, when they joined the armed services. Strategy is being decided on the hoof and our troops are pawns.

"It is complex difficult terrain, both the land and the people, it is a tribal society with a culture vastly different from what most of us are familiar with and it varies around the country, so you cannot assume what is true in one province is true in another."

The General was candid in his assessment and admitted the west is not winning this war and his forces will need to do things dramatically differently to stop the insurgency.

"We must gain the initiative by reversing the perceived momentum of the insurgents. We must seek rapid growth of Afghan national security forces and that is the army and the police, and we most improve their effectiveness and our own through closer partnering, and this means we must plan together, live together, operate together and take advantage of each other's strengths as we move forward," he said.

McChrystal has reportedly requested thousands more troops to help him make Afghanistan a stable, secure country and eventually able to look after itself - his definition for success there.

But one of the preconditions being set by the British government, before it will commit to sending more troops, is a "new Afghan government being in place." There is no sign this happy state of affairs is any closer - in fact the reverse. Corruption is a way of life in the country.

Before Gordon Brown makes any decision about increasing troops he should read this opinion from Military World.

Military chiefs are prepared for “scores, if not hundreds” more British soldiers to die in a new troop surge to win the Afghan war.

They expect the British military death toll to rise sharply under the masterplan drawn up by General Stanley McChrystal, the US commander of Nato forces in Afghanistan, to defeat the Taliban.

But they believe that if there is a clear and convincing strategy for success, the British public could be persuaded to back the military campaign.

I don't back this military campaign and never will. During McChrystal's speech there was one remark he made which stuck in my mind all day yesterday. He said he was proud of all troops and on a recent visit to Afghanistan he met with British soldiers. "... their eyes were bloodshot from total exhaustion..." This one phrase ridicules Gordon Brown's claims that everything is being done for those out in that punishing environment. It is well known our soldiers are not getting suitable breaks and that their health is suffering. Many, if they survive this war, will have problems for the rest of their lives.

One plan that would receive my approval is a schedule of withdrawal, but Bob Ainsworth is so worried about us being seen as 'losers' he refuses to even examine such a strategy. Saving face is far more important than saving lives for this band of warmongers.

The Tories will be no better. They will increase troop numbers. David Cameron will continue allowing Britain to be dictated to by the US.

Such is the quality of our political representatives.

(You can see the video of McChrystal's Q & A session here.)

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