Afstan: Brits going wobbly/Not shifting to Kandahar

What's a poor Afghan to think?

Liam Fox flies to Afghanistan seeking to speed up troop withdrawal

The Government hopes to speed up withdrawal of thousands of British troops from Afghanistan and has ruled out any move from Helmand province to neighbouring Kandahar.

In a significant shift from Labour’s foreign policy, Liam Fox, the Defence Secretary, said that Britain was not a “global policeman” and emphasised that the mission in Afghanistan was about making British streets safer rather than sending Afghan girls to school.

His comments, in an interview with The Times, came as the Ministry of Defence announced yesterday that 8,000 British troops in southern Afghanistan would come under the control of the US, a change that underlines Britain’s diminished role in the region [more here, it's a bit ironic that the Brits in Helmand will come under a US general, whilst the Americans Kandahar will remain under a UK general--until this fall when the US takes over there too].

Dr Fox, who is due to visit Afghanistan this weekend, plans to use the trip to explore ways to accelerate the departure of some 10,000 British troops. “We need to accept we are at the limit of numbers now and I would like the forces to come back as soon as possible,” he said...

General Stanley McChrystal, the US commander in Afghanistan, has said that by 2014 Afghans should be able to manage their own security. Dr Fox said: “That is something I will get a chance to look at. I want to talk to people on the ground, our trainers, to see whether there is room to accelerate it without diminishing the quality.” Dr Fox, who will be accompanied by William Hague, the Foreign Secretary, and Andrew Mitchell, the International Development Secretary, said that the Lib-Con coalition would impose clearer limits on the Afghan campaign.

“We have to reset expectations and timelines,” he said. “National security is the focus now. We are not a global policeman. We are not in Afghanistan for the sake of the education policy in a broken 13th-century country. We are there so the people of Britain and our global interests are not threatened.”

Despite speculation that British Forces would move to Kandahar to replace the Canadian mission that leaves in July [er, 2011 Times people, more here], as favoured by some US and British commanders, Dr Fox said that UK troops would stay in Helmand. “It would be crazy to go somewhere else and start all over again,” he said...