London, November 25: British Defense Minister Bob Ainsworth has criticized the US president for a delay in dispatching reinforcement to Afghanistan.
“Barack Obama’s delay in setting out how he wants to reinforce the international force in Afghanistan has undermined Britain’s attempt to rally public support for the war there,” Ainsworth told the British House of Commons’ defense committee.
Some 235 UK troops have died in Afghanistan since 2001.
Two recent surveys have been conducted by respected international pollsters looking at the level of public support in the UK for the Afghan war.
Canadian-based Angus Reid Research Center found that 53 percent of Britons oppose their country’s military involvement in Afghanistan.
Another survey conducted by the US-based Pew Research Center has revealed that while 48 percent of British respondents favor withdrawing from Afghanistan, 46 percent wanted the British troops to remain deployed there.
Poll data indicate that more than half of the American public is opposed to the Afghan war — in its ninth year and with no end in sight.
The Opinion Research Corporation, commissioned by the CNN, found that 52 percent of Americans are against the so-called counterinsurgency operations, while 45 percent favor them, the AFP news agency reported.
The survey was carried out using a sample of 1,014 adults, including 928 registered voters, from November 13-15.
Meanwhile, a leaked memo revealed that the British government has been seeking reconciliation with Taliban’s leadership council based in the Pakistani city of Quetta.
The leaked memo proposes that the “reconciled” Taliban should be removed from the UN sanctions list, the BBC reported. The proposed plan calls for the reintegration of Taliban foot soldiers, their commanders and shadow governors.
The memo was first reported by the German magazine Stern and by Hasht-e Sobh, a newspaper in Kabul.
——Agencies