The decision has already been made.
Brown has no appetitie for war of any kind. He has handed back the vote to Parliament for future conflicts knowing full well that the lefy wing Parliament (including the Tories) will not sanction another unpopular adventure. Just in case they do, however, best to make sure the Forces are in no state to mount such a campaign. If he could get out of Iraq and Afghanistan tomorrow, he would but he cannot afford the fallout, especially in relations with the US.
He sees the global conflict as economic, with some justification. His battle fronts are in the financial markets and that is where he sees the need for victory. Let's face it, what is the point of having an all singing and dancing array of Forces if all the enemy has to do is turn off the gas and food supplies?
He will keep up just enough for counter terror and insurgency type operations. Not because he wants to keep us safe, but because he wants to keep us all just scared enough to swallow his ever increasing controls on our liberty. Also, if he keeps us frightened of terrorists on one hand and the climatic end of the world on the other, he can continue to milk us for taxes and tighter controls. In that respect he is no different from the mad Mullahs who use Islam as an instrument of mass control.
That is the price you pay for a bankrupt left wing state that insists on controlling everything and is actually terrified of true democracy. Personally, I think the pendulum has swung far too much to the left and I doubt if there is any way back.