England Panics, Wants Out Of Afghanistan, Anti-War Minister Of Defense Resigns

Times Online:

Gordon Brown’s attempt to bolster faltering public support over Afghanistan was dramatically derailed last night by the resignation of a ministerial aide.

Eric Joyce quit as Private Parliamentary Secretary to the Defence Secretary Bob Ainsworth with an extraordinary attack on the Government’s handling of the conflict.

The resignation came on the eve of a speech that Mr Brown hoped would start to restore support for Britain’s engagement in Afghanistan, which has slumped after rising casualties and criticism over inadequate resources for frontline troops. It emerged last night that two more soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan within 24 hours, both deaths in the town of Babaji in Helmand.

In his speech, Mr Brown is expected to defend the Government’s support for British troops and insist that their mission remains to protect Britain from terrorism. But in his resignation letter Mr Joyce, himself a former soldier, calls for the Prime Minister to set a five-year timetable for withdrawal.

“I do not think the public will accept for much longer that our losses can be justified by simply referring to the risk of greater terrorism on our streets. Nor do I think we can continue with the present level of uncertainty about the future of our deployment in Afghanistan.”

The Labour MP for Falkirk also made a stinging attack on “Labour figures” for smearing serving personnel who speak out over inadequate resourcing. “Behind-the-hand attacks by any Labour figure on senior service personnel are now, to the public, indistinguishable from attacks on the services themselves,” writes Mr Joyce.

It was criticism from Sir Richard Dannatt, who spoke out about inadequate troop levels and helicopters before retiring as Chief of the General Staff this summer, that helped to turn Afghanistan into a big political problem for Mr Brown. Criticism from unnamed ministers about serving personnel “playing politics” over the issue led to claims of a smear campaign.

Although Mr Joyce is regarded as a maverick whose credibility was undermined by the MPs’ expenses scandal, his resignation is certain to hobble Mr Brown’s attempted fightback over Afghanistan, at least in the short term. Many Labour MPs will privately share the assertion in his resignation letter that the party will lose the next election unless it gets a “grip on defence”.

Downing Street sources expressed anger at the manner of Mr Joyce’s resignation, insisting that he had not informed Mr Brown before his decision nor sought a meeting.

After the resignation, the Prime Minister’s office made public excerpts of Mr Brown’s speech to the International Institute for Strategic Studies in an attempt to regain the initiative. In the speech the Prime Minister will say that he wants to take “head on the arguments that suggest our strategy in Afghanistan is wrong and to answer those who question whether we should be in Afghanistan at all.

“Each time I ask myself if we are doing the right thing by being in Afghanistan and if we can justify sending our young men and women to fight for this cause, my answer has always been yes. For when the security of our country is at stake we cannot walk away.”

The difficulties faced by British soldiers were further underlined as details emerged of the deaths of two soldiers in the town of Babaji. A soldier from the 2nd Battalion The Mercian Regiment, serving with The Light Dragoons battle group, died of gunshot wounds yesterday after a Taleban insurgent sprayed a foot patrol with rounds from a Kalashnikov while it was going through Babaji.

The day before, a soldier from the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, was killed by an improvised explosive device in the Babaji district. Also serving with The Light Dragoons, his vehicle was targeted by the device.