UK commander: Iraq war cost years in Afghanistan

[sabra]

http://in.today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2006-10-17T234811Z_01_NOOTR_RTRJONC_0_India-272667-1.xml&archived=False

UK commander: Iraq war cost years in Afghanistan

LONDON (Reuters) - The decision to divert forces to invade Iraq cost the West years of progress in Afghanistan, the outgoing commander of British forces in Afghanistan said on Tuesday.

The comments by Brigadier Ed Butler, who returned this week from commanding the British contingent, were the second implicit criticism of government policy on Iraq from the military's top brass in less than a week.

Butler commanded a force of 4,500 British troops who went into Afghanistan's biggest opium-producing province, Helmand, for the first time this year and encountered fierce resistance from Taliban guerrillas.

He told reporters the province was a "blank canvas" when the British troops arrived, with only about 100 American troops there, based in the provincial capital.

[IndianaGreen]

1. Troops will be in Afghanistan for next 20 years, says commander

Here is the way The Independent reported this story:

Troops will be in Afghanistan for next 20 years, says commander

By Kim Sengupta
Published: 18 October 2006

The commander of the British forces returning from Helmand said that his forces were having to make up for the time lost by the decision of the US and UK to invade Iraq instead of concentrating on post-Taliban Afghanistan.

"We could have carried on in 2002 in the same way we have gone about business now," said Brigadier Ed Butler. "Have the interim four years made a difference? I think realistically they have. It doesn't mean that we will not achieve what we set out to do."

Stressing that he was speaking from a strictly UK perspective, and not for the international community, Brigadier Butler added: "So have we slipped back? I don't think we have slipped back, we may have marked time and I think we are starting to make up for that time."

Brigadier Butler continued that an international presence may be required in Afghanistan for the next 20 years, but he did not specify how long the British forces would have to remain.

Brigadier Butler, who heads the 3 Para Battle Group, has just handed over command in Afghanistan. He disclosed that his troops had come close to running out of supplies ."It got pretty close. We never actually ran out but that was the nature of the conflict. The guys were not starving but people were down to their belt rations," he said.

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia/article1886633.ece

[Matilda]

2. It's all just crazy.

There may have been some point to the invasion of Afghanistan - the people were crying out for
liberation from the Taliban.

But it was really more about securing a pipeline from the Caspian Basin, I think. Once they got
that, liberating the people didn't really matter any more.

So now there's a lot of dead, and there'll be a lot more, and where will they be in twenty years'
time?

[jpak]

3. Commander: Mistakes Made in Afghanistan

http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/bw-exec/2006/oct/17/101704173.html

The U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan failed to follow through as it should have after ousting the Taliban government in 2001, setting the stage for this year's deadly resurgence, the NATO commander in the country said Tuesday.

The mistake consisted of adopting "a peacetime approach" too early, British Gen. David Richards told Pentagon reporters. He said the international community has six months to correct the problem before losing Afghan support, reiterating a warning he issued last week.

"The Taliban were defeated. ... And it looked all pretty hunky-dory," Richard said of the environment at the end of 2001. "We thought it was all done ... and didn't treat it as aggressively as ... with the benefit of hindsight, we should have done."

Progress on security, rebuilding and good government didn't meet Afghan expectations, and this year the "Taliban exploited ... this sense of frustration amongst the people," Richards said in a televised conference from Afghanistan.

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[daleo]

4. Didn't Brezhnev say this too?

Around about 1983?

[soothsayer]

5. you mean we shouldn't have rushed everyone to iraq (for no good

reason)?

[Supersedeas]

6. Nothing to see here: Feed them more John Mark Karr and Wesley Snipes