UK troops to remain in Afghanistan for at least 38 years, says brigadier

A British commander has predicted that British troops will remain in war-ravaged Afghanistan for at least 38 years.

London, Aug.6 : A British commander has predicted that British troops will remain in war-ravaged Afghanistan for at least 38 years.

"If you look at the insurgency then it could take maybe 10 years. Counter-narcotics, it's 30 years. If you're looking at governance and so on, it looks a little longer. If you look at other counter-insurgency operations over the last 100 years then it has taken time," The Telegraph quoted Brigadier John Lorimer, who is based in southern Helmand province, as saying.

Brigadier Lorime's bleak assessment comes a year after British forces were deployed in Afghanistan to counter-attack and neutralise a resurgent Taliban.

Former Defence Secretary John Reid earlier prediction that British troops would move out of the country by 2009, and "without a shot being fired," appears to have come unstuck in the wake of this latest assessment.

British forces have found themselves fighting a bloody and protracted war against determined Taliban insurgents, producing the hardest fighting they have seen in a half a century.

Sixty-six British soldiers have been killed since 2001 in Afghanistan and hundreds injured, the vast majority in Helmand since July of last year.

Brigadier Lorimer's remarks to The Observer follow recent comments by the new British Ambassador to Kabul, Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles, who told the BBC in an interview in June that the British public must be prepared for "a marathon not a sprint" in Afghanistan.

Sir Sherard denied reports suggesting that he believed British forces would remain in Afghanistan for thirty years but said: "I've said the task of standing up a government of Afghanistan that is sustainable is going to take a very long time. It's a marathon rather than a sprint. We should be thinking in terms of decades."

"We're not [talking] about a long-term military presence but we are serious about a long-term development presence, because this country does matter to us and to the region in so many ways," he added.

ANI