Lib Dem Leader says British lives have been thrown away in Afghanistan (Wantage and Didcot Liberal Democrats)

Wantage and Didcot Liberal Democrats <info@wantagelibdems.org.uk>

Lib Dem Leader says British lives have been thrown away in Afghanistan

July 10, 2009 12:16 PM

Nick Clegg meets British troops in Afghanistan

After seven days in which seven British soldiers have lost their lives in Afghanistan, Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg has broken the cross-party consensus on the mission, warning that young lives are being "thrown away" by politicians. Winston S Churchill, president of the United Kingdom National Defence Association and grandson of the British prime minister during the Second World War, has welcomed the Liberal Democrats' intervention.

Writing yesterday in the Daily Telegraph, Mr Clegg wrote: "Recent events have led me to question, for the first time, whether we're going about things in the right way. We now need to ask whether the government has the will, strategy or tactics to do the job properly. Our young men and women's lives are being thrown away because our politicians won't get their act together."

Mr Clegg maintains that he supports the aims of the mission and is not calling for British troops to be pulled out yet. However, he insists that the current course is wrong calling it "a halfway house." He says: "It is time to put real political will behind a new strategy, and a new commitment to Afghanistan. It is our last chance before it is too late."

Mr Clegg's comments come as Defence Secretary Bob Ainsworth said success in Afghanistan would require "courage and patience". Denying that Afghanistan was turning into "another Vietnam", he nonetheless conceded that there was "gloom and worry" over the number of British fatalities in the country.

In his first major speech as Defence Secretary, Mr Ainsworth said: "Let us be under no illusion. The situation in Afghanistan is serious - and not yet decided. The way forward is hard and dangerous. More lives will be lost and our resolve is going to be tested. If we are to succeed we will need both the courage and the patience to see it through. There is no defined end date - only an end state."

In his article, Mr Clegg also blamed poor equipment for some of the deaths. "I am appalled that so many of our soldiers have been killed because of inadequate equipment." Mr Clegg also believes that the American surge of troops will further marginalise the British effort in the same way that it did in Iraq when British troops were "relegated" to the background. He says: "I can only imagine how demoralising it must be for British troops at all levels to feel they have to be bailed out by Uncle Sam."

Winston Churchill, president of the UK National Defence Association, is reported in the Daily Telegraph saying: "Nick Clegg is the first party leader to draw a direct connection between the scale of losses in Afghanistan and the lack of resources given to our Armed Forces. To be successful the campaign in Helmand requires a much greater commitment by Britain and, as the Liberal Democrat leader says, a new and more robust approach.

Mr Churchill added: "I very much hope that other party leaders, on both sides of the House of Commons, will join Nick Clegg in acknowledging the indisputable fact that our Armed Forces are chronically under-funded and over-stretched due to the longstanding squeeze on the defence budget. They must give a firm pledge not only to exempt the Armed Forces, while at war, from any general budgetary cuts, but also, at the earliest opportunity, increase the resources available to all three Services."

A total of 176 British servicemen and women have died in Afghanistan since the start of operations in 2001. There are about 8,300 British troops based in the country.