London, September 05: Britain and the US on Friday defended their strategy in Afghanistan amid mounting
criticism over the rising death toll from war-weary voters.
The incident of Nato airstrike came as British Prime Minister Gordon Brown delivered a speech calling the
Western strategy against insurgents in Afghanistan “flawed” yet essential to suppressing the worldwide terrorism threat.
Top US military chiefs launched a staunch defence of their campaign against the Taliban before a war-weary public and warned that time was running out to make headway.
But a keynote speech by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown was overshadowed by the resignation of a ministerial aide in protest at London’s stance in Afghanistan, where 212 British soldiers have been killed in the
campaign.
In Washington, US Defence Secretary Robert Gates insisted on Thursday that the war was not “slipping through the administration’s fingers”, but admitted: “There is a limited time for us to show that this is working.”
“We are mindful of that, we understand the concerns of many Americans in that area but we think that we now have the resources and the right approach to start making some headway,” Gates told reporters. British Premier
Brown pledged that Britain will not walk away from Afghanistan when its own security was at stake.
“People ask what success in Afghanistan would look like. The answer is that we will have succeeded when our
–Agencies