Defence chief attacks ‘weak’ Afghan leader

The Times ^ | February 1, 2009 | Carey Schofield and Michael Smith

[Mercia]

THE head of Britain’s armed forces has criticised the government of Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, for failing to establish proper control over the country.

Air Chief Marshal Sir Jock Stirrup, chief of defence staff, expressed serious concerns about the “weakness” of the Karzai government and the difficulties this was causing the mission of British troops.

Amid reports that President Barack Obama sees Karzai as an impediment to success in Afghanistan, Stirrup, interviewed in today’s Sunday Times News Review, says all the allies are worried about the “lack of capacity” of his government.

“This mission is, essentially, all about governance and there is no doubt that there is a lack of capacity within Afghanistan.”

The objective is “not to turn Afghanistan into some sort of Asian Switzerland”, Stirrup says, but the country’s problems “can only be dealt with, in the long term, through politics”.

Karzai, sometimes known by British troops as the lord mayor of Kabul because he has so little power outside the capital, has had a difficult relationship with the British...

...The interview came as a British soldier killed in a fire-fight on Friday near Musa Qala was named as Corporal Danny Nield, 21, from Cheltenham, Gloucestershire.

Nield, a member of 1st Battalion, The Rifles, died in an explosion believed to have been caused by a rocket-propelled grenade fired by Taliban fighters during an attack by British and Afghan forces north of Musa Qala.

He was a forward air controller working with 29 Commando Regiment, Royal Artillery, and was calling in attacks from Royal Navy Harrier aircraft and army Apache helicopter gunships for members of the Afghan forces.