UK has boosted Taliban, admits defence chief (The Guardian)

[Up2Late]

(Looks like things are about to get as fouled up in Southern Afghanistan too)

UK has boosted Taliban, admits defence chief

Minister says Afghan mission will be 'very, very difficult and dangerous'

Patrick Wintour and Declan Walsh in Camp Bastion, Afghanistan
Saturday July 8, 2006
The Guardian

Des Browne, the defence secretary, conceded yesterday that the deployment of 3,300 British forces into the Taliban heartland of southern Helmand has "energised" the Taliban. His sombre assessment came after a week in which a sixth British soldier was killed in the province, and as he prepares to announce next week the dispatch of reinforcements to the country, including extra air cover and engineers.

Lieutenant Colonel Stuart Tootal, the officer in charge of British troops in the region, also admitted the resistance was proving unexpectedly tough. He said: "If we were honest, we didn't expect it to be quite so intense. But at the same time, we have trained for it. "

(clip)

...In the first sign of a crack in the effective all-party consensus on the Afghan deployment, the former defence minister Doug Henderson called for British troops to be confined to barracks until the purpose of the mission was clarified.

He told GMTV: "I think until a political strategy has been worked out and agreed ... then in some senses there should be a withdrawal of British troops to barracks". He claimed troops did not know what they were doing or for how long.

(more at link) <http://www.guardian.co.uk/afghanistan/story/0,,1815736,00.html?gusrc=rss>

[Greeby]

1. I was unsure when it said "defence chief"

Because the Chief of the Defense Staff is my uncle, Sir Graham "Jock" Stirrup

[Up2Late]

2. Sorry, I don't get the reference

That is how you spell defence in the U.K. right?

It's a mis-spelling here.

[Up2Late]

3. kick n/t

:kick:

[applegrove]

4. Ain't that the truth!