The New Media Journal | Obama's Delay on Afghanistan Affecting UK Support: "President Obama’s delay in authorizing a US troop surge in Afghanistan had contributed to falling public support in Britain for the mission, Bob Ainsworth said yesterday.
The Defense Secretary said that as well as the “period of hiatus” in Washington, the deaths of British troops and the disputed Afghan elections had also played a part.
Mr. Obama is preparing to announce his decision on troop numbers next week, it emerged yesterday, ending months of wrangling.
Mr. Ainsworth’s comments came as the British Ambassador to Kabul entered the bitter debate in the Obama Administration by openly siding with General Stanley McChrystal’s request to send thousands more troops.
Mark Sedwill said yesterday that he agreed with the American commander’s report in September, which called for a further 40,000 US troops to be sent to Afghanistan.
“I have been through the McChrystal analysis as well as the report quite carefully, in order to do my job and advise our Government. I think it is a very compelling analysis,” he told The Times at his office in the heavily defended British embassy in Kabul.
“He [McChrystal] is talking about a total of 140,000 ISAF troops, both to secure and protect the population in the short term and create a situation where we build up the Afghan forces, can hand over to them and they take the lead. I think that is right,” he said."
No comments:
Post a Comment
Spamming will be removed.
Due to spamming. Comments need to be moderated. Your post will appear after moderated regardless of your views as long as they are not abusive in nature. Consistent abusive posters will not be viewed but deleted.
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.