British Troops Face Decades In Afghanistan

By Sean Rayment,
Defence Correspondent
Last Updated: 10:37 pm BST 06/10/2007
Telegraph

British troops face a 30-year "marathon mission" against the Taliban in Afghanistan, the commander of UK troops in Helmand has warned.

...Speaking exclusively to The Sunday Telegraph, Brig Lorimer said:

"This is a counter-insurgency operation which is going to take time. It could last a decade. The counter-narcotic problem, which is huge, could take another 25 years. The British ambassador has said it will take 30 years. He has often said that this mission is a marathon, not a sprint and he is absolutely right."

Brig Lorimer, ...also said that the Afghan government might eventually be forced to negotiate with Taliban commanders if peace was ever to be brought to the country. ...

... Gordon Brown has refused to comment on how much longer British troops will remain in Afghanistan. All the Prime Minister would say was that "we have duties to discharge and responsibilities to keep" and any future withdrawal of service personal would be based on "military advice from commanders on the ground".

But the possibility of soldiers remaining for three decades in Afghanistan would push their length of service there towards the recently-ended 38-year stay in Northern Ireland — the longest, continuous operation in modern UK military history.

...Brig Lorimer, 44, also admitted that the Taliban was adopting tactics used by insurgents in Iraq. More than 18 months of bitter fighting have left its ranks depleted and its troops demoralised, ...

"Their tactics are evolving. We have seen more improvised explosive devices being used against us, more mines and suicide attacks, ...

"They have a menu of tactics they use and this includes conventional weapons like mortars and RPGs [rocket propelled grenades]. They are also using straight conventional attacks — using every weapon they can get their hands on. There has been a decrease in the number of locals fighting for the Taliban and, by means of compensation, there has been an increase in the number of foreign fighters. These include Arabs, Chechens, Pakistanis, Punjabis. But we have no intelligence or evidence of Britons fighting for the Taliban. At the moment we only have rumours on that front."

...He warned of the dangers of trying to impose western values on the Afghan people. "What we do here needs to be right for Afghanistan and the local population," he said. "We are not trying to create a Buckinghamshire in Helmand. At some stage the Afghans may turn around to us and say, 'Thanks very much indeed but we are now in a position to do this on our own', and at that stage it would be quite appropriate for us to go."