To get out!
The new Foreign Secretary William Hague arrived in Afghanistan Saturday with a warning that Britain wants to withdraw its troops as soon as possible. But the new Tory Defence Secretary Liam Fox accompanying Hague went further in a yet-to-be-published interview with The Times newspaper before arriving in Kabul.
Fox made clear the visit would focus on speeding up the withdrawal of British troops from Afghanistan, and that no new troops would be deployed:
We need to accept we are at the limit of numbers now and I would like the forces to come back as soon as possible. We have to reset expectations and timelines.Is there a new deputy sheriff in town?
National security is the focus now. We are not a global policeman. We are not in Afghanistan for the sake of the education policy in a broken 13th-century country. We are there so the people of Britain and our global interests are not threatened.
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ReplyDeleteI see this less as a stand on the hopelessness of the tactical situation but the financial condition of the UK, although I could be wrong.
ReplyDeleteAre you saying the UK is worse off than the USA? Really?
ReplyDeleteIt's a strange state of affairs in the UK, a Labour government takes them to war and a Conservative led coalition is talking about ending their participation. That's back asswards.
ReplyDeleteP.S. Beach could be right, it's about affording a war.
Solution may be simple.Pressure Karzai to enact an Arizona-style border law-then kick us out. I'm sure few of our troops have visas or work permits or have applied for Afghan citizenship.
ReplyDeleteWorth a shot man.
The final death-blow to the Bush 2-Blair 1 Axis of Unrealistic and Shortsighted Foreign Policy Expectations/Evil.
ReplyDeleteOso's 'worth a shot' ditto. Beach has a point too, the fiscal health of the UK is crumbling... nothing shows how publicly visible that is more than the results of their recent election. Eh?
ReplyDeleteGood on 'em. I hope Mr. Obama's paying close attention.
ReplyDeleteHappy Memorial Day, C.W.V.! (Drop me a line in email?)
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