On the final day of Labour’s gathering on the Sussex coast, the Foreign Secretary made clear the UK Government would not be risking the lives of British soldiers, if ministers were not convinced the work they were doing was essential to security in Britain.
If the coalition were to abandon its work there, he warned: “The clock would be turned back to the 1990s, when Afghanistan was a place for al Qaeda to seduce, groom, train and plan for deadly terrorist missions. With the best of intentions, withdrawal would mean risking the next 9/11 or 7/7.
“We will wait to get a credible election result and we will not be rushed into a whitewash,” he insisted.
Earlier, Bob Ainsworth said he was unable to put a time limit on Britain’s deployment in Afghanistan but gave the assurance that there would be no increase in UK troop numbers unless they were properly equipped.
The Defence Secretary told delegates: “We can’t afford not to be there. For Britain to be secure, Afghanistan needs to be secure, Pakistan needs to be secure.”
He went on: “The threat may be less visible but it is no less real. The risks of leaving Afghanistan before the job is finished are stark.”
Mr Ainsworth acknowledged there were “difficult decisions” to be taken about sending more troops to Afghanistan. “We will take those decisions as an alliance, although the UK cannot allow the deployment of its troops to outstrip the supply of equipment that allows them to do their job and minimises the risks they face.
“Before I agree to any increase in troop numbers, I must be sure that the balance of risk is acceptable by evaluating the capacity of the supply chain to properly equip the increased force.”
He conceded the Afghan elections “were not everything we had hoped” amid widespread allegations of corruption and vote rigging.
However, he stressed that the ballot taking place at all in the face of Taliban attacks had been an achievement.
Elsewhere, Gordon Brown said the Taliban would “easily take back control of Afghanistan, if we were not there”.
The Prime Minister said: “We are protecting the streets of Britain as well as protecting the security of Afghanistan but the strategy has had to change.
“We have got to be part of a group of countries that are bringing Afghan people back into control of the army, the police, local government and, of course, we cannot make final decisions about what we do next until we know the election results.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article