KABUL: Senior British military officers are concerned that continuing fierce fighting in Afghanistan will lead to a drastic drop in domestic public support, which could jeopardise the army’s recent deployment there.
The officers are particularly worried about casualties. Last week two SAS soldiers were killed in a night battle with at least 75 Taliban fighters. Three British servicemen have now died in the opening weeks of the operation, which has seen a series of fierce engagements with a mixture of drug smugglers, tribal militias and religious militants. The enemy are more tenacious and determined than expected with coalition troops often calling in attack helicopters and airstrikes by jets to extricate them from difficult situations. It is now widely accepted that more servicemen will be killed than had been planned for — something for which the British public is not thought to have been sufficiently prepared.
In a briefing in Kabul, Brigadier Ed Butler, one of the most senior army officers in Afghanistan, described ‘UK public opinion’ as a key strategic factor in the campaign. General Sir Mike Jackson, the Chief of General Staff, made his own concerns privately known in the city last week.
A major review of the British operation, which centres on the hostile Helmand province in southern Afghanistan, is under way. ‘If the public turn against the campaign, it will be terrible for morale and will make it far more difficult to obtain the resources we need to get the job done,’ one officer told The Observer.
‘The guys will have the impression they are fighting for nothing and that would be a disaster. We have a well-defined mission to bring security to parts of Afghanistan that are not secure so reconstruction can go ahead. It is incredibly important that we do that.’
The government is aware of the dangers posed by flagging public support. Des Browne, the Defence Secretary, acting on the instructions of the Prime Minister, has ordered a push to make sure the British operation is portrayed as part of a more general project to reconstruct Afghanistan and not a purely military task.
However, early British efforts to win ‘hearts and minds’ in Helmand have been compromised by the decision of US military chiefs to involve them in Operation Mountain Thrust, the most aggressive campaign against Taliban strongholds in central Afghanistan for four years.
The widespread destruction of poppy crops by Afghan authorities, again under pressure from the US, in the regions where UK troops are hoping to build local support, has also compromised the ‘carrot and stick’ approach favoured by the British.
