ROBERTSON COMMENTS ON US AFGHAN RETHINK.

ROBERTSON COMMENTS ON US AFGHAN RETHINK.

DECISIVE ACTION FROM US CONTRASTS WITH DITHERING FROM UK.

Commenting on reports that President Obama is to announce a clear plan for future US deployment in Afghanistan, SNP Westminster Leader and Defence Spokesperson Angus Robertson MP contrasted the President’s decisive vision with Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s dithering.

Mr Obama is expected to announce additional troops and a medium term timeframe from withdrawal from Afghanistan when he makes his announcement to the US people tonight.

Yesterday, Gordon Brown confirmed 500 more UK troops will be sent to Afghanistan, subject to certain conditions.

Mr Robertson said:

“President Obama has led an exhaustive review of US strategy and will now set out his response to that rethink. This is in stark contrast to Gordon Brown who is still dithering over conditions to be met and has yet to conduct any serious review of the UK’s involvement in the region.

“That the UK are now sending reinforcements, after eight years, underlines the folly of Labour’s decision to take us into Iraq. Distracted by the Iraq quagmire, the government took its eye off the ball in Afghanistan.

“A military solution has never been enough – perhaps most crucially we need development, as the UK’s former ambassador to the UN, Sir Jeremy Greenstock, says the army has been "holding a wall up" in Helmand, but "no one has come along to build a buttress" of development.”