Hilife,
Some valid points, but regardless of whether UK Plc pull out of Afghanistan in the next 5 years or not is in my eyes irrelevant. Whether it is future warfighting against large armoured formations or disaster relief New Orleans style, HMT and Prime Minister Brown can look for as many scape goats and political spin options as they want, but the hard fact (backed up now by considerable operational experience and not just RUSI 'think tanks' ,Operational Analysis and NAO reports) is that the UK has been taking considerable risk in underfunding/resourcing helicopter lift. Not just an odd per cent here and there - but a huge amount of lift capability shortfall.
Like anyone I welcome any politcal solution to any conflict (war is after all just a continuation of politics by another means!), but if we believe that once the requirement for H M Forces in Afghanistan is reduced/removed that the requirement for helicopters is also reduced/ removed then we are deceiving ourselves (again) or shifting the risk to another Govt or generation.