Lt Gen James Bucknall, David Cameron, and a swift about-turn -

 

 

f David Cameron had any doubts about the scale of the challenge facing
British troops in their battle against the Taliban, they will have been laid
to rest by the extraordinary events that have overshadowed his visit to
southern Afghanistan.

The Prime Minister started his trip in high spirits, joking with US soldiers
marking America’s Independence Day celebrations that they would still be
members of Her Majesty’s Armed Forces “if one of my predecessors hadn’t
screwed up so badly”. He also arrived at Camp Bastion, the main British
base, determined to press ahead with his plans to order the withdrawal of an
additional 500 troops next summer.

It is an open secret in Whitehall that this Government no longer has much of
an appetite for sustaining our effort in Afghanistan. Senior Tories such as
George Osborne and Oliver Letwin have concluded that the mission is a
complete waste of money, whose goals of bringing peace and security can
never be achieved. Dr Liam Fox, the beleaguered Defence Secretary, is keen
to divert the precious resources currently invested in the Afghan campaign
to support his own ambitious agenda for restructuring the Armed Forces.

This diminishing interest in the Afghan mission has been reinforced by
President Obama’s announcement last month that he is ignoring the advice of
his senior military commanders and withdrawing the entire 33,000-strong
American contingent deployed only last summer as part of the “surge”
strategy to defeat the Taliban.

Yet whatever the Prime Minister’s intentions when he arrived at Camp Bastion,
they had undergone a radical reappraisal by the time he left. Rather than
withdrawing an additional 500 troops next summer, Mr Cameron will tell the
Commons today that they will instead be withdrawn at the end of the year.
This might seem like small beer to some. But to the commanders on the ground
it could make all the difference between making a success of Britain’s long
and costly involvement in Afghanistan and crawling home with their tails
between their legs, as was the case in southern Iraq four years ago.