Top UK general:We'll know outcome of Afghanistan war by 2020

[cem]

.

We'll know the outcome by 2020, says top general

by Deborah Haynes, Tom Coghlan and Michael Evans, The Times 24 November 2011


The head of the Armed Forces has warned that it may be another decade before Britain can judge whether the war in Afghanistan has been a success.

In an interview with The Times, General Sir David Richards, the Chief of the Defence Staff, denied that the campaign had been doomed from the start, despite initial tactical errors. But "at the end of the day, we won't know [if it has succeeded] until 2018, '19, '20".

As America's 33,000 surge troops are pulled out of key areas in southern Afghanistan over the next ten months, General Richards pledged that British Forces, remaining at nearly full strength in Helmand province in the south, were not going to be shifted to areas from where US Marines have been withdrawn.

He was adamant that British troops would not be redeployed to the volatile town of Sangin in northern Helmand.

"No, no. We will not be going [back] into Sangin. What is happening is the Americans will hand over to the ANSF [Afghan National Security Forces] who will assume responsibility for Sangin," he said. The current plan, which has been discussed with the US, "sees us remaining within our three existing districts and we will hand over progressively to the ANSF within them".

More than 100 British soldiers died in Sangin last year, making it the most dangerous area in the country.

Washington is planning to withdraw 15,000 of its 20,000 troops from Helmand in the next few years.

British military sources have told The Times that Downing Street insists that the Armed Forces will be not be used to expand their area of responsibilities as America pulls out.

Plugging the gaps, known as "backfilling", will instead become the responsibility of Afghan forces.


___________________________



from the archives:


General Sir David Richards: Forces reach 'turning point' in Afghanistan

British forces could be pulled out of Afghanistan within five years, the head of the Army, General Sir David Richards, has disclosed

by Con Coughlin, Daily Telegraph, 26 February 2010

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/afghanistan/7326145/Gen eral-Sir-David-Richards-Forces-reach-turning-point-in-Afghanistan.html


.