Times:
British were complacent in Afghanistan, says Sir Jock Stirrup
Britain’s top military commander has admitted for the first time that America was right to criticise the way in which British troops carried out counter-insurgency operations against the Taleban in southern Afghanistan when they first deployed to Helmand province in 2006. Air Chief Marshal Sir Jock Stirrup, the Chief of the Defence Staff and a former head of the RAF, blamed commanders for being “smug and complacent” about the challenges they faced in Helmand.
His words echoed accusations made by Robert Gates, the US Defence Secretary, and several senior American military officers who claimed that their British counterparts spent too much time boasting about their experiences in Northern Ireland. John Reid, who was Defence Secretary when the 3,500-strong 16 Air Assault Brigade, commanded by Brigadier Ed Butler, was deployed to Helmand in 2006, said at the time: "We would be perfectly happy to leave in three years time without firing one shot because our mission is the reconstruction."
For six months, the paratroopers faced daily attacks by the Taleban and suffered substantial casualties. The Ministry of Defence was forced to double the number of troops and today there are more than 8,000 servicemen and women in southern Afghanistan, still facing attacks and still suffering a high rate of casualties.
In an interview with The Economist Sir Jock acknowledged that there had been criticisms from some Americans over the performance of the British. He warned that such differences must not be allowed to “fracture and disintegrate” the cohesion of the alliance fighting the Taleban.
“I think that we were a bit too complacent about our experiences in Northern Ireland and, certainly, on occasion, we were a bit too smug about those experiences,” he said. “You are only as good as your next success, not your last one. You can never rest on your laurels and I think we may have done that. If you go around and ask enough Americans you will find some who are critical to a degree. . . of the way that the British do things and the approach that the British take.” He added, however: “We have to understand that our military structures are different, our social structures within our countries are different, and therefore there are inevitable differences in the way we approach some of our tasks.”
He revealed that as a result of the campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan, a “fundamental reappraisal” of Britain’s counter-insurgency training and structures would be completed shortly.
One of the earliest critics of the British approach in Basra was General Jack Keane, a retired American military chief with close links to the administration of President Bush and one of the architects of the US surge of 30,000 troops to Iraq. He made public his concerns about the high level of violence in Basra and predicted an increase in extremist activity if the British went ahead with withdrawing from the city. General Keane subsequently revised his view of British achievements in Iraq.
President Obama is expected to ask Britain to contribute more troops for Afghanistan but Sir Jock said: “Even without the contribution in Iraq, what we are doing in Afghanistan is already quite close to the maximum sustainable effort over the long term.”