Bring the Troops Home from Afghanistan

NATO’s occupation of Afghanistan is in crisis. Big cracks in US strategy are beginning to show:

* Attempts to contain the Taliban are failing. The toll of dead and injured NATO forces is mounting. More than 300 British soldiers have died in this 9-year war – one third of them in the 10 months from August 2009.

* The promised transition from NATO to Afghan control is not taking place. The Afghan government is corrupt and divided; the Afghan National Police are incompetent and demoralised; and all attempts to knock the Afghan National Army into shape have failed.

* Nor is there any increase in civilian reconstruction. Remember how every newspaper in Britain heralded the British Army delivering a turbine to the Kajaki dam so that the people of Kandahar would have hydro-electric power? At the end of June, it was still lying in the dirt. The Taliban had made it impossible to bring in cement to install it.

No wonder there are disagreements at the very heart of the British and US governments over what to do next. President Obama even had to sack his top general for publicly criticising his administration. Obama is now back-tracking on an earlier suggestion that troop withdrawal would begin by July 2011.

David Cameron says he wants to see British forces home by 2015. On taking office, Defence Secretary Liam Fox called for a speeded up withdrawal of troops. Now he’s arguing that the British might be the last to leave, and that early withdrawal would be ‘a betrayal of the sacrifices by British forces’.

We need to let parliament know how strong the feeling is for British withdraw from Afghanistan.

Write to your local MP using the model letter or delete it and provide your own. Personalised messages are more effective.