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"Brian Daily" <daily.brian@gmail.com.nomaps> wrote in message 
news:lkata2hfnviflkak2253njpksqeidalmch@4ax.com...
> http://icstaines.icnetwork.co.uk/news/tm_objectid=17346232&method=full&siteid=50102&headline=mp-seeks-afghan-troops-recall-name_page.html
>
> British troops in Afghanistan should be withdrawn to barracks until a 
> clear
> political strategy has been agreed, a Labour former armed forces minister 
> has
> argued.
>
> Doug Henderson warned that soldiers lives must not be put at risk in the 
> absence
> of "direct and immediate purpose".
>
> And he suggested that an effective military strategy would only be 
> achieved on
> the back of an effective political one.
>
> Defence Secretary Des Browne told MPs on Thursday that he is urgently
> considering requests for extra troops in Afghanistan.
>
> His announcement followed the death of the sixth British serviceman to be 
> killed
> in the troubled Helmand province in the past month.
>
>
> Story continues Continue story
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>
> In an interview for GMTV's Sunday Programme, to be broadcast this weekend, 
> Mr
> Henderson said: "First of all we're getting bogged down and secondly, it's 
> not
> clear what the strategy is.
>
> "I don't think it's clear to the world community, I don't think it's clear 
> to
> the insurrectionaries in Afghanistan and it probably isn't clear to our 
> troops
> either."
>
> He added: "I think the United Nations needs to look at the political 
> situation
> again. There needs to be a clear political strategy."
>
> Mr Henderson, MP for Newcastle upon Tyne North, told GMTV: "Once we have a
> political strategy it will then be much clearer what the military strategy 
> needs
> to be to reinforce that."
>
> He continued: "I think until a political strategy has been worked out and 
> agreed
> by those who need to agree to it then, in some senses, there should be a
> withdrawal of British troops, to barracks at least, and the other NATO 
> troops."

This may stun you to your boots, but at this point, I don't think Mr 
Henderson is necessarily wrong. In fact, I have concerns about what 
Canadians and Americans and other forces are doing there at the moment. In 
particular, I do wonder whether or not our presence there is not actually 
creating a problem that would not exist otherwise.

I believe that the Taliban and others of their ilk are a genuine military 
target - I'm not convinced that tens of thousands of Western troops are 
quite the right answer to that.

AHS