Britons want to withdraw troops from Afghanistan poll says

An opinion poll shows more than half of Britons think military operations in Afghanistan are futile and they want troops to be withdrawn immediately, the AFP says.

The pool result was found a day after the military had completed the first phase of a bloody offensive against the Taliban.

According to the Independent, the result displays 58 per cent see the offensive against Taliban extremists in Afghanistan as futile, whereas 31 per cent believe the conflict is winnable.

52 per cent, more than half of the 1,008 respondents said they want the troops out, while 43 per cent want them to stay.

75 per cent believe British troops lack the adequate equipment they need to perform their role in Afghanistan safely, compared to 16 per cent who think they have enough resources to fight Taliban in Afghanistan.

On the issue of weather the government should deliver more troops and resources to Afghanistan, 60 per cent of those polled do not think there is a need, according to the ConRes survey conducted over the phone earlier this month, the AFP said.

The findings, as AFP news states, were published a day after Gordon Brown had announced the end of the first phase of Operation Panther’s Claw, an offensive in the southern Helmand province launched last month.

Brown claimed success in the operation and praised the “heroic” efforts of troops in Helmand province. “The efforts of our troops in Helmand have been nothing short of heroic,” Brown said, “There has been a tragic human cost. But this has not been in vain.”

He also said troops would now focus on holding ground before bringing development to the province.

His comments came as two more soldiers were killed in the region, which has raised the death toll up to 191 that the British troops killed in Afghanistan since late 2001, and the toll was higher than in Iraq.

The surge in deaths has previously sparked a political row over the troops “lack of adequate equipment” and different UK publications reported the same issue.

The Timesonline earlier reported Sir Richard Dannatt had flown around Afghanistan in an American helicopter as the General later made it clear because there is no British helicopter available.

As the Reuters continued, Britain has around 9,150 troops in Afghanistan, the vast majority fighting Taliban militants in troubled Helmand.

According to the Timesoneline and the AFP, Foreign Secretary David Miliband reassures the public about British operation while urging NATO allies to carry more of the burden.

He said: “The biggest shift must now be towards the Afghan state taking more responsibility,” the Foreign Secretary said in a speech at the NATO headquarters in Brussels, aimed mainly at the British Public.

He then went on to warn Afghan leaders their next government must do more to defeat the Taliban and drive a wedge between the insurgents.

According to the AFP, there are about 90,000 foreign troops in Afghanistan helping local forces stabilise the country, with thousands deployed in the south to secure the restive area ahead of presidential polls on 20 August.

The vote, a key test of US-NATO backed efforts to install democracy in Afghanistan after decades of war and conflict, reportedly will be only the second time that Afghans elect a president.

Although President Hamid Karzai is favourite to win a second term, he has come under fire as his rivals opposed him for not doing more to improve security sine assuming office after the fall of the Taliban in 2001, the AFP reports.