Out We Go??

Wednesday 21 July 10

By Naomi

David Cameron has given new hope to service men and women at the possible withdrawal as early as July 2011 out of Afghanistan.

 After Mr Cameron’s first official meeting with Barack Obama in Washington this week has implied that British troops could follow the lead of American troops as the Prime Minster has said, “Based on conditions on the ground”. These indications are following discussions that the Prime Minister and the President had about the War in Afghan.

Both men are under a lot of domestic pressure to bring troops home as both used it as a big part of their manifestos.

 Also due to the pledge the Afghan president has made Hamid Karzai's that Afghan security will carry out military operations by 2014 but in return wants control of half of all aid money spent in Afghan.

Mr Cameron believes that by allowing Afghan this allow a swifter transition."The faster we can transition districts and provinces to Afghan control, clearly the faster that some forces can be brought home"

However Mr Cameron knows that these calms of bringing the troops home cannot be said under false belief as he followed by saying, “I don't want to raise expectations about that because that transition should be based on how well the security situation is progressing.

Mr Cameron has been criticised about given dates so early in his term by former head of the Army Gen Sir Mike Jackson said he was "wary" about setting dates, and a plan to transfer power "does not equal reality". He further adds that by setting a official date for troops to exit could also lead to security risks as it could encourage the Taliban to hold out until the exit and that power should only be transferred when the Afghan can maintain there own security.

Although previous Prime Minsters had also fed this line about bringing troops home it seems Mr Cameron has gone further by already setting out deadlines for Afghan troops to take full charge of military security in order for the withdrawal of troops to take place completely.

Will the troops now be able to come home or will another Prime Minster have given false hope? Only time and how the Afghan government react will tell us the fate of our troops.