British troops face five more years in Helmand

British troops will have to fight the Taleban for another five years, according to a leaked draft of the communiqué that will conclude the London conference on Afghanistan this week.

Participating governments are also expected to agree to bribes totalling hundreds of millions of pounds which will be paid to leading insurgents in the hope that they will stop fighting.

The controversial plan is likely to anger relatives of British soldiers killed by the Taleban in Helmand province. Last night the MoD said that a 251st serviceman had died, while the most senior US commander in the war zone predicted that the violence would get worse before it got better.

Gordon Brown, the host of the summit which begins on Thursday, will present the plan for stabilising Afghanistan. It foresees a bloody endgame, with Afghan forces only gradually taking on their rightful role over several years.

The draft closing statement lays down a timeline which is significantly less optimistic than that envisaged by President Obama, who has suggested that US forces would aim to begin drawing down troops from mid-2011.

It commits Afghan forces to “taking the lead and conducting the majority of operations in the insecure areas of Afghanistan within three years and taking responsibility for physical security within five years”.

“Providing conditions are met”, it adds, some of the more stable regions of the country may be put under the control of Afghan security forces at the end of this year or in early 2011, with Western troops providing support.

Yesterday Bob Ainsworth, the Defence Secretary, acknowledged that the transition to a more peaceful Afghanistan would be a lengthy process. “We’ll be able to hand over parts of Afghanistan long before we hand over other parts,” he said.

A similar note of caution was struck by the top US general, David Petraeus, who told The Times in an interview that fighting in Helmand and elsewhere in the south could intensify this summer. He warned that the particular combination of factors that produced a decisive drop in violence following the 2007 Iraq surge were unlikely to be replicated as quickly or dramatically in Afghanistan.

The centrepiece of the London conference, attended by countries with troops in Afghanistan, will be the reconciliation plan. It promises “an honourable place in society” to those who cut their ties with “al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups”. It will be underwritten by a “Peace and Reintegration Trust Fund” over the next three years.

The Times has learnt that the US, Britain and Japan are the principal donors to the scheme, the details of which were thrashed out in a meeting involving diplomats from 20 countries in Abu Dhabi two weeks ago.

“The hope is the Afghans will present the plan in London. Then the Americans, the British and the Japanese will open up the purse strings and bankroll it to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars,” said a senior official briefed on the discussions.

The Government will seek to justify the London plan by arguing that peace in Afghanistan requires all sides to be involved in the process. “When people say to me, ‘Should the Afghan Government be talking to the Taleban?’, I have a simple answer: ‘Yes, they should’,” David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, told the BBC.

Source: Times Online.co.uk, Jan 25 2010
By: Dominic LawsonDominic Lawson

It is absurd - morally and legally - to force women to be feminist against their wishes"

Views: 53

Comment

You need to be a member of 12160 Social Network to add comments!

Join 12160 Social Network

Comment by Anti Oligarch on January 25, 2010 at 7:37am
The opium wars will never end we're just going through phases.
Problem is that people believe anything TV tells them.
Comment by Zensaber on January 25, 2010 at 5:45am
Thanks for the article Anti Oligarch. I remember reading this one estimate from a British general I believe last year. He was talking about how the United Kingdom might have to stay in the middle eastern area for decades to come.

"Destroying the New World Order"

TOP CONTENT THIS WEEK

THANK YOU FOR SUPPORTING THE SITE!

mobile page

12160.info/m

12160 Administrators

 

Latest Activity

Less Prone favorited tjdavis's video
1 hour ago
Less Prone favorited tjdavis's video
1 hour ago
Less Prone posted photos
1 hour ago
tjdavis posted a video

Zero Days - Official Trailer

Streaming now on @DocPlay: https://www.docplay.com/shows/day-zeroFrom Academy Award-winning filmmaker Alex Gibney (Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of...
4 hours ago
Doc Vega posted a blog post

Is This Story True and Have their Identities Been Changed?

(Perhaps it’s the only way it can be told) Chapter 1Roy reached across the aisle of the DC-3 as it…See More
10 hours ago
Doc Vega posted photos
11 hours ago
Sandy posted videos
yesterday
cheeki kea commented on cheeki kea's photo
yesterday
cheeki kea posted a photo
yesterday
cheeki kea favorited Doc Vega's blog post A Grain of Hope
yesterday
Doc Vega posted blog posts
Saturday
Doc Vega's 7 blog posts were featured
Saturday
tjdavis's blog post was featured
Saturday
Burbia's blog post was featured

Mystery illness strikes Russia with fever, blood symptoms, and no cure in sight.

I guess releasing this bio-weapon upon Israeli neighbors would be hitting too close to home. I…See More
Saturday
Less Prone commented on Doc Vega's photo
Thumbnail

main-qimg-357a10f7111dcf87a3cc6e2afad83855

"Islam is only a phase preceding a total Talmudic rule and a new world religion."
Saturday
Less Prone commented on tjdavis's photo
Thumbnail

WWRJD

"I doubt a d-rat Jesus would be better. Much worse. “Politicians are the lowest form of life…"
Saturday
Less Prone favorited tjdavis's photo
Saturday
Doc Vega posted blog posts
Friday
cheeki kea commented on cheeki kea's photo
Thumbnail

Lost History

"The Tartar wall - aka The Great Wall of China is hundreds of years old and was up and running in…"
Friday
cheeki kea posted a photo
Friday

© 2025   Created by truth.   Powered by

Badges  |  Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service

content and site copyright 12160.info 2007-2019 - all rights reserved. unless otherwise noted