Clegg lays into Afghanistan tactics
By politics.co.uk staff
A decision not send in another 2,000 troops to Afghanistan was made for political reasons, Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg has claimed.
Mr Clegg alleged that an army request for an extra batch of troops was turned down, and that troops were operating in a “political vacuum”.
“I think we are putting the troops in the worst of all worlds, putting them in harm’s way – willing the ends, if you like, but not the means,” he told the BBC.
“You cannot fight a war by muddle. You have got to do it properly or not do it at all.”
Mr Clegg said Britain had been bailed out of Helmand province by the Americans who dedicated an unprecedented number of troops and resources to the area recently in an effort to assert control.
“Gordon Brown has got to stop pretending this is somebody else conflict.”
The UK has sent an additional 800 troops into the war zone this year, taking the number of service personnel to 9,000.
Mr Clegg said that “by all accounts”, Gordon Brown had deliberately not sent more troops because he was “worried by the domestic political reaction”.
“If you send people to war you must supply the resources they need, or you should not send them at all,” he told the Daily Telegraph.
“Otherwise you are betraying that fundamental covenant between a nation and its armed forces.”
Britain has lost seven service personnel in the conflict in as many days.
