British public goes off war

The British public is losing its stomach for the war in Afghanistan. In a month which has seen the deaths of 22 British soldiers out of a total of 191 in the almost eight year old conflict, London daily the Independent reports on its front page that according to a recent poll, 52 per cent of the British public want troops to be withdrawn from Afghanistan immediately. 58 per cent concede that the Taliban cannot be defeated militarily, considering the war “unwinnable”. Britain’s PM Gordon Brown, however, still resolutely rides on public optimism as expressed in June, when a majority expressed support for the war, announcing yesterday the success of the first phase of “Panther's Claw”, a push by the army to clear out Taliban insurgents from the area of Helmand ahead of next month's Afghanistan elections. "What we have actually done is make land secure for about 100,000 people," he claimed. Afghanistan is a country with a population of over 30 million. According to Afghanistan Conflict Monitor, 800 civilians were killed in the first five months of 2009. The humanitarian watchdog also reports 2008 alone saw 3,917 civilians killed.