Vietnam, July 12: Political mayhem takes center stage in the UK following deadly attacks on British troops in Afghanistan where soldiers are told to fight an “unwinnable” war.
Voices of strife within the ruling Labor party have unified with the opposition about the recent attacks on British military. High-ranking Labor authorities have even blasted the government’s approach to the ongoing campaign in the southern Helmand province of Afghanistan.
Leading British politicians from the Labor administration slammed the British chief of general staff, General Sir Richard Dannatt, for his recent remarks calling for an additional 2,000 forces to the existing 9,000 in bid to stifle militancy around the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.
David Crausby, Labor MP, in the defense committee of the British parliament, criticized the General, accusing him of playing politics in the wake of the recent Taliban militia assault that killed eight soldiers in a single day, Britain’s daily, the Times reported.
“General Dannatt has crossed an important line. He is playing a high-risk game,” he said.
Crausby said, “It is not appropriate to play party politics at this time. Dannatt should just get on with the job. After the conflict, if there are lessons to be learnt, we should do so in a considered manner.”
Leader of the Conservatives, David Cameron, said the government’s failure in the handling of the war has become a “scandal.”
The latest deaths of British soldiers has rocked the capital. Rights campaigners along with journalists from leading UK media have pledged to stage a demonstration Monday on Downing Street to demand a speedy withdrawal of British forces from war-ravaged Afghanistan.
Anti-war campaigners have likened the UK presence in Afghanistan to the 1960s US war in Vietnam, where over 300,000 US soldiers were killed.
“The troop ‘surge’ which was meant to pacify Helmand province has become a nightmare for the British army,” Stop the War coalition said on Saturday.
“This unwinnable war must stop now,” the movement concluded.
At least 184 UK troops have so far lost their lives in Afghanistan, which outnumbers the total number of British troops lost in action in Iraq.
Army generals have portrayed a ‘long hard summer’ for international service members in Afghanistan.
—–Agencies