PM criticised for dodging 'bad news' on Afghan troops

The Prime Minister made no mention of the plan to deploy more British forces to the front line when he told MPs on Wednesday that the historic withdrawal of British forces in Iraq would begin this summer with a cut of 1,600 troops.

He was seen as seeking to announce "good news" on a key legacy issue himself, leaving the Defence Secretary to announce the "bad" news on Monday. The Government has repeatedly denied the deployment of more troops to Afghanistan is tied to the withdrawal from Iraq, but many MPs will see the two are linked.

UK military commanders have been pressing ministers for reinforcements ahead of an expected spring offensive by the Taliban in Helmand province. There were claims yesterday that 700 Taliban fighters were seen crossing from Pakistan into Afghanistan.

Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, who met Mr Blair recently for talks at Number 10, has protested at Pakistan's failure to stop the Taliban attacking from across the border. The plans were disclosed on Thursday when Cabinet ministers discussed the difficulties in both Iraq and Afghanistan. Mr Blair is understood to have underlined the need to support the Karzai government to stop Afghanistan falling back into the hands of the Taliban.

The force package will include two squadrons - C squadron and H2 squadron - from the Household Cavalry Regiment based at Windsor, with around 230 troops. The regiment is also sending two squadrons - including Prince Harry's A Squadron - to Iraq.

Nick Harvey, the Liberal Democrat defence spokesman, said: "Tony Blair has left himself with the easy job of announcing troop reductions in Iraq, whilst Des Browne has been saddled with the task of revealing these increases. The Prime Minister needs to put an end to his habit of avoiding Parliament when he may have to face tough questions about his foreign policy. "

The alliance has some 35,000 troops in the country, including 5,600 British troops, mainly deployed in Helmand, who were visited by Mr Blair before Christmas. Gordon Brown, the Chancellor, is expected to add £250m to the defence budget for the reinforcements. The Government admitted in a response to the Commons select committee on defence that its budgets for Afghanistan and Iraq would be exceeded.

Tory defence spokesman Liam Fox protested that the British taxpayer should not be footing the bill for the reinforcements to Afghanistan. "Those troops should be coming from countries such as Germany, France, Italy and Spain, who have so far not shown the adequate resolve to be part of a full Nato complement in Afghanistan."

Dr Fox added: "We have now had three reinforcements since the time that John Reid told us we were not going to be under-deployed in Afghanistan.

"It is clear that the Government has failed to get our Nato allies to carry their share of the burden in Afghanistan. Too many of our European partners are now pocketing the Nato security guarantee but leaving UK taxpayers and the UK military to carry the cost.

"It is clear now that our Army is so over-stretched we can't carry two conflicts. We were told initially that there were no plans to reduce troops in Iraq to reinforce in Afghanistan. We now know the Government is not only incompetent but fundamentally dishonest."

Nato commanders have been complaining for months that they do not have enough troops to inflict a decisive defeat on the Taliban.

One senior officer privately described it as a "Cinderella" operation, compared to Iraq.

However there has been deep frustration within the alliance that the brunt of the fighting has been borne by troops from just a few countries - notably Britain, the United States and Canada.

More
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/article2300420.ece