Trump’s Afghan war folly

Corbyn warns UK must not be sucked into ‘doomed’ mission

JEREMY Corbyn warned against us being dragged into a rehash of the “failed” war in Afghanistan yesterday after Donald Trump revealed plans for a massive US surge.

The President is poised to send thousands of troops to try to defeat a resurgent Taliban – and has urged the UK and other nations to join him.

Mr Trump said: “We will ask our NATO allies and global partners to support our new strategy, with additional troops and funding increases in line with our own. We are confident they will.”

His comments raised fears that Prime Minister Theresa May could bow to pressure and redeploy British forces.

But Labour leader Mr Corbyn said: “The war in Afghanistan has failed.

“After 16 years of bloodshed and destruction, the Taliban are undefeated and terrorism is no less of a threat at home. In fact, it has spread.

“The British Government should make clear to Donald Trump his strategy of more bombing and a new troop surge will continue this failure, not obediently applaud his latest policy U-turn.” Mr Trump had spoken throughout his election campaign of pulling American forces out of the war-torn nation. He said: “Let’s get out of Afghanistan. Our troops are being killed by the Afghanis we train and we waste billions there. Nonsense. Rebuild the USA.”

But at Camp David last week his generals convinced him they must continue the fight against al-qaeda and the Taliban. Acknowledging that his “original

instinct was to pull out and historically I like following my instincts”, the President said he realised a hasty withdrawal would create problems.

Invoking the terror atrocity in Barcelona last week, he said such a move would create a vacuum that terrorists would fill. Mr Trump provided little detail on the US’S new battle plan but it is thought 3,900 troops will soon be deployed to Afghanistan. The President said: “I will not say when we are going to attack but attack we will.”

Mr Trump also vowed to crack down on Pakistan’s sheltering of terrorist and militant groups. He promised that Islamabad has “much to gain” from partnering with America but also warned that “it has much to lose by continuing to harbour criminals and terrorists”.

Senior diplomatic sources said Washington was pushing Mrs May to increase UK presence in Afghanistan, where vital areas have fallen back under the control or influence of the Taliban. There are currently up to 585 British troops in the country, alongside 8,400 American soldiers.

Defence Secretary Sir Michael Fallon said the US commitment was “very welcome” and that he had told US Defence Secretary James Mattis we will “stay the course” in Afghanistan.

He added: “It’s in all our interests that Afghanistan becomes more prosperous and safer: that’s why we announced our own troop increase back in June.”

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said: “NATO remains fully committed to Afghanistan and I am looking forward to discussing the way ahead with Secretary Mattis and our Allies and international partners.”

Since the NATO mission against the Taliban was launched in 2001, 456 of our military personnel and MOD civilians have died in Afghanistan.

U-TURN President