KABUL - The Chief of the Defense Staff (CDS), General Sir David Richards, has said in an interview that in ten years time we will all agree the war in Afghanistan was necessary. General Richards gave an interview about UK operations in Afghanistan to The Times newspaper published. In the piece, CDS spoke about the reasons for the mission, the current strategy and plans for the UK's military withdrawal.
General Richards said that we won't really know how successful the mission in Afghanistan has been for a few years yet, but justified the mission saying:
"You have to be prepared to fight for one's freedom and one's security. And if you go back to the situation in 2001 - and I think people tend not to do this sufficiently often - and think of those twin towers, think again of what happened here in London a few years later, and just pause as to whether or not, if we had not gone into Afghanistan, we wouldn't have had a lot more of that.
"All the people that I've got under me have been fighting for ten years to ensure that this country and the people of this country will not have such a high risk of that sort of thing being inflicted on them.
"And the fact is that, while I'm the first to concede that we have made mistakes collectively, and no doubt individually, over the ten years there has not been a terrorist attack launched from Afghanistan."
General Richards added that, regarding Helmand, there is now a consensus that things have gone much better and that we are launched on a strategy that he believes will deliver a successful outcome by the end of 2014. He added:
"The strategy is all about growing the numbers and the capabilities of the Afghan National Security Forces. I think everything we're seeing is that we're on track for them assuming more and more responsibility, which is the strategy, culminating sometime in 2014 with them having the lead throughout Helmand, with us there still in support. And I'm confident that the broad strategy will deliver the sort of success we need.
"Now, there will be tactical upsets on the way. That's why we can't just hand it over to them now and leave. They do need another three years of mentoring and partnering to make sure that we deliver the right outcome and can then hand over to them in good order, a job well done.
"But I'm confident that all the indicators now… and just look at the huge reduction of what we call kinetic acts, they've dropped by 86 per cent this summer from what was the case last year.
"I couldn't go near Nad 'Ali when I was [Commander of] ISAF, I just couldn't go near it. But today, and on my last visit, I walked around without a flak jacket, talked to people in bazaars that didn't exist [before].
"So I have no doubt - and I think there is a consensus - that things are much better for those living within those security zones, and clearly the lives of our soldiers, because we've got the troop ratios right, are much safer, although sadly we continue to have a - much smaller - number of casualties that are still coming through.
"The real issue, though, isn't tactical activity in Helmand. It's are we gaining strategic traction? And don't forget, the military activity that we're involved in is only a relatively small but important part of a wider military campaign which itself is a part of a much wider cross-government [effort]; governance, economics… all those things are a vital part of it.
"What the military's been able to do much better latterly is buy time and create conditions for those much more fundamental things to be properly addressed. And I think everything I'm seeing, the Bonn Conference coming up shortly, the Chicago Conference next year, everything suggests that the international community does understand the importance of getting that right into the long term, even though we, the military, will hand over the fighting to the Afghan National Security Forces at the end of 2014."
Asked whether the Afghans are doomed to failure, given that the government itself is so corrupt, the General said:
"There is corruption in Afghanistan, but there's corruption in a lot of places around the world and you just have to factor it in and increasingly marginalize it."
Explaining what the indicators will be that the mission has succeeded come 2014, he said:
"First of all, narrowly, from our perspective, that the Afghan National Security Forces [ANSF] are able to take on the task that we have predominantly been performing with them, but often for them, as they grow in size and capability.
"And we're not talking about turning them into the British Army, able to maneuver with tanks and air forces and all those sorts of things; we're talking about an army that is sufficiently good to deal with people who are quite rudimentary at the military tactical level. And I see that that is a perfectly realizable strategy and we're en route to deliver it.
"More widely, clearly there has to be continuing improvement in terms of governance. The relationship with Pakistan is vital and I, along with lots of other people, spent a lot of time working with the Pakistanis on how they can help us seal that border and address their own problems.
"So there's a mish-mash, a mosaic of activity, but as far as I'm concerned our focus, which is core to the military strategy, is making sure the ANSF can step up to the task and carry on all the good work, but with our continuing support."
Regarding the timescales for US or UK withdrawals from Afghanistan General Richards said that the declared military objective is transition between now and the end of 2014, and the handover of primacy to the ANSF. CDS added:
"As long as plans allow that outcome, the detail of which plan we go for is still being debated, and I literally expect, sometime in the next month, that we will get from the Supreme Allied Commander Europe, because this is not just Britain or just America, his endorsed recommendation. We will then synthesize our own national planning with that.
"The biggest risk we face is if the many nations that constitute ISAF go national. We've got to remain closely coordinated and see this through as an alliance in a properly synchronized way.
"And we just don't know yet. We're still talking three years before we hand over. We're talking another year before anything substantial happens in terms of changes in troop numbers. We need to think it through properly and get it right.
"So we're not in a desperate hurry. We've got plenty of time. We know that we will remain until the end of 2012 at 9,000. We've got 9,500, we're coming down by 500 over the next year."
Asked if the war has been worth the lives lost and the resources spent, General Richards said:
"As far as we in the British Armed Forces are concerned, the answer is an unequivocal 'yes'. The vast, vast majority of soldiers - we're all volunteers, we have no doubt that this is a good war, despite all of us losing friends throughout it.
"Why? Because we do see this as part of a tradition in which the British people have wanted, for good reason, their armed forces to fight for their freedom. And I go back to the point that, back in 2001, if the allies had not gone into Afghanistan, we should have expected many more 9/11s. Why wouldn't they have done it? They were on a roll.
"And so I believe that it's absolutely in line with that great tradition of being prepared to fight for our freedoms. And we have some fantastic people I have the privilege of leading at the moment, who are prepared to go and do that on our people's behalf. So it is in that tradition that I view it.
"Now, people might say that the tactics have been wrong or there's been a lack of focus on governance, and mistakes have been made. I would be the first to acknowledge that. This is not easy and every war in history has had its ups and downs, and we won't really know that it's been successful in terms of preserving our security until some years after we've got out.
"I have every expectation that we will all agree, in ten years time, that this was a necessary war and that we've come out of it with our heads held high, the British Armed Forces held in huge respect around the world for doing the right thing and fighting hard for those freedoms, and it will be seen to be worth it, not just by us in the Armed Forces but by everybody." (Agencies)