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The UK in the US: We Promise to Stay, and We Promise to Go

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06.05.2009 at 11:42pm

A nice – short – and to the point perspective by Simon Shercliff, the First Secretary Foreign Security and Policy at the British Embassy in DC – We Promise to Stay, and We Promise to Go:

One small part of President Obama’s much-heralded speech in Cairo this week hit squarely the two key planks of both the US and the UK’s Afghanistan/Pakistan policy: 1) a promise to bring troops out as soon as we are confident that there is no threat emanating from” violent extremists in Afghanistan and Pakistan determined to kill as many Americans [or Brits] as they possibly can”; and 2) a promise to continue building and strengthening our respective relationships with the Afghanistan and Pakistan governments and people, not least through long-term, non-military assistance programmes.

Obama said: “make no mistake: we do not want to keep our troops in Afghanistan. We seek no military bases there”. To the extent that we can work out accurately the motivations of the various parts of the insurgency in Afghanistan, we continually find that straightforward nationalism plays a part (just one part). The stationing of one country’s troops on another country’s soil has always, and almost universally, generated this characteristic, anywhere in the world. The people of Afghanistan, of whichever ethnic group, are no exception. We need to continue to make clear that we have no designs on any form of long-term, military occupation of these proud people.

But in the same breath, this policy needs to be balanced by another clear message – again President Obama brought it out in his speech. While the US and UK, and all our other allies, want to bring our combat troops home as soon as we can, we also want to emphasize that our governments are setting up a long-term commitment to support Afghanistan and Pakistan, politically and through our respective overseas aid departments. Obama said: “we also know that military power alone is not going to solve the problems in Afghanistan and Pakistan. That is why we plan to invest $1.5 billion each year over the next five years to partner with Pakistanis to build schools and hospitals, roads and businesses, and hundreds of millions to help those who have been displaced”. The UK has committed $811 million to Afghanistan over the next four years – this is one our biggest overseas aid commitments. We need to reinforce the message at every turn that we are not going to cut and run. We will not leave both coutries to whatever fate befalls them, once we decide that the threat to us has subsided.

A tip of the hat – or tam – some SWJ types are of Scots heritage – to the British Embassy for sharing this with our community. Cheers.

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