Military strategy alone is not enough to win Afghan war – Brown

BRITISH Prime Minister Gordon Brown has said military strategy alone is not sufficient to win the Afghanistan war.

And UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon said he expected Afghan President Hamid Karzai to reach out to other political leaders to promote reconciliation.

In a press conference on the sidelines of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Port-of-Spain on Saturday, Prime Minister Brown said while Britain was prepared to raise troop levels in Afghanistan in the short-term military strategy alone was not sufficient.

He said it should be political strategy that is complimented by a military strategy that would work.

Prime Minister Brown said President Karzai would have to accept that there would be milestones and benchmarks to set that his government would have to meet.

He said he would announce next week whether the UK would send 500 more troops to Afghanistan. If he does the UK troop levels there would reach 9,500.

"What we need is a political push to match the military push that we are now agreeing to," Prime Minister Brown said.

He said London would host an international conference on 'Afghanisation' on January 28, 2010.

Prime Minister Brown said the conference would clear on the need to build institutions in Afghanistan.

He called for clear plan on police training, fighting corruption, appointing governors in provinces and districts including having strengthened civil society.

Prime Minister Brown said President Karzai would have to welcome into the democratic process people who renounced their support for the Taliban.

He said the Taliban had limited support in Afghanistan but emphasized the need for a corrupt free police.

Prime Minister Brown said President Karzai had promised setting up an anti-corruption task force. He said a lot of work needs to be done and the international community was demanding more.


Source:postzambia.com