Gen. David Petraeus warned Wednesday that the effort to quash the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan would fail without British support, making his case to U.K. leaders facing painful choices over what kind of military commitments the country can afford.
Addressing an audience of officers and diplomats in London ahead of a major U.K. strategic defense review, the head of the U.S. Central Command said that he needed Britain's help to beat the Taliban.
"As was the case in Iraq, the scale of the British contribution in Afghanistan is such that the coalition cannot succeed without you," he said.
The U.K. currently has some 10,000 soldiers in the NATO-led mission fighting in Afghanistan, and it is the second-largest foreign contingent after the United States. But public support for the war is uneven and Britain also faces a yawning budget deficit the country's newly elected leaders must tackle.
By: Brant
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment