THE EFFORT by British prime minister Gordon Brown to ease growing public concern about the UK’s involvement in Afghanistan has been seriously undermined by scathing attacks from three former senior military chiefs.
Mr Brown insisted yesterday that British troops would stay in Afghanistan, but warned newly elected Afghan president Hamid Karzai to stamp out rampant corruption or risk forfeiting international support.
His speech, delivered before an audience of military officers at the Royal College of Defence Studies, was prepared over several days after the killing on Monday of five British soldiers by an Afghan policeman. However, his hopes that it would counter growing opposition to the war were undermined by the decision of three former military chiefs to launch deeply personal attacks on Mr Brown.
They criticised his record, complaining, once more, about equipment shortages, but also about the military’s belief that Mr Brown is not really “with them”.
Lord Admiral Michael Boyce, who was chief of defence staff between 2001 and 2003, said the British government “doesn’t seem to realise that we are at war”. Accusing Mr Brown of “dithering” about committing more troops to Afghanistan, Lord Charles Guthrie said “it is too much to hope” that the government would “provide the necessary cash” to fight the war.
Field Marshal Peter Inge, who was chief of the defence staff for three years from 1994, said Mr Brown “unfortunately has some baggage as far as the armed forces are concerned” from his time as chancellor of the exchequer.
“Because they feel that he has never really been on their side and they have not had his support,” the field marshal told the House of Lords during statements yesterday on Afghanistan.
“Leadership is as much about emotion as it is about logic”.
In his speech, Mr Brown rejected growing demands for a British pull-out: “In the last decade, in hundreds of attacks across the world, al-Qaeda and those associated or inspired by them have killed thousands.
“These victims were Muslim, Christian, Jewish, of every faith and none. This is a reality all the world has witnessed – in New York, Bali, Baghdad, Madrid, Mumbai, Rawalpindi – and of course right here on the streets of London,” he said.
While the campaign in Afghanistan and Pakistan “is having a suppressive effect” on al-Qaeda, the Afghan mission “must not fail. It is not easy, the choices are not simple. There is no strategy that is without danger and risk.
“But that is the responsibility of leadership – of government and of our armed forces – to do what is necessary, however difficult, to keep the British people safe. We cannot, must not and will not walk away,” Mr Brown said.
He spoke several times with President Karzai during the week and agreed five goals: security, governance, political reconciliation, economic development and relations with neighbouring countries.
“If the [Afghan] government fails to meet these five tests, it will not only have failed its people, it will have forfeited its right for international support,” the prime minister said, without outlining what would happen if Mr Karzai is deemed to have failed.
The Afghan president must now establish an agency to tackle corruption. “I am not prepared to put the lives of British men and women in harm’s way for a government that does not stand up against corruption.
“People are right to ask whether our soldiers should be placed in harm’s way, if the government of Afghanistan is unable or unwilling to meet its obligations to the Afghan people.”
President Karzai, who has privately complained about the US and Britain’s obsession with past corruption, is expected to outline action in his inauguration speech on November 19th, but his ability to honour pledges is questionable.
Mr Brown said he wanted a high-level international adviser to be sent to Afghanistan to help in the fight against corruption and warned President Karzai that “cronies and warlords should have no place in the future of Afghanistan”.