Why Is Bob Ainsworth Speaking Out Now?

Why was Bob Ainsworth so candid with the Defence Committee on Tuesday? It's seldom a UK Cabinet Minister takes a swipe at the US president and especially not this US president who still seems to have an almost demi-god status in British politics.

Has Mr Ainsworth had enough and thought his honesty would cost him his job? Does he now know too much and like Eric Joyce want out but it's prepared to resign? Or does he know he won't be relected so he has nothing to lose?

His comments included: "The 98 British deaths this year had been a key factor but the hiatus in the US had not helped bolster public support.

"The prism through which this is all seen, in the UK is the deaths in theatre and that tends to wipe out in the public mind and does damage to people's perceptions of the success that we are having in Afghanistan."

The prime minister's spokesman hurriedly denied that the Defence Secretary was suggesting the US delay had made it more difficult to make the case for the campaign in the UK.

Nine thousand troops in a theatre of war with no political leadership offered is nothing less than a national disgrace. A country like Britain having to wait for a US President to tell us what to do makes a mockery of our democracy, or what's left of it. Gordon Brown agreed he would send 500 more troops if the other UN countries contributed. I would like to see Europe's contribution before one soldier steps on a plane to Afghanistan because I do not believe any country will contribute more military.

A rather interesting extract from an article on Frank Spiel Mill's site for you:

Third, Commander in Chief Obama’s releasing of the formerly Top Secret Memos on his own army’s interrogation techniques befouls the inferred loyalty he owes his soldiers. No competent commander gives the enemy any part of his soldier’s interrogation operations manual. No sane commander takes a further step backwards and eliminates the very interrogation techniques proven to add to the advantage he continually seeks. Such actions heighten the risk of harm to his troops, weaken his army’s potential for victory and threaten the security of his nation. For war is unequivocally harsh my friends and foes. And it appears that Commander in Chief Obama does not have the stomach for war at the Jihadist-level. Duck and take cover.

Tweet