London: A soldier facing a court martial for
refusing to serve in Afghanistan urged Prime Minister Gordon
Brown on Thursday to withdraw Britain's troops, saying they had
become "a tool of American foreign policy."
Delivering a letter to Brown's Downing Street office,
Lance Corporal Joe Glenton, 27, said the NATO-led mission
there was bringing "death and devastation" to the Afghan
people and would ultimately fail.
"It is my primary concern that the courage and tenacity
of my fellow soldiers has become a tool of American foreign
policy," he wrote.
"I believe this unethical short-changing of such proud
men and women has caused immeasurable suffering not only to
families of British service personnel who have been killed and
injured, but also to the noble people of Afghanistan."
The protest came as the Ministry of Defence (MoD)
confirmed that British forces in Afghanistan had suffered
their highest casualty rate since the US-led invasion of the
country in 2001, in the wake of the September 11 attacks.
Twenty-two British soldiers were killed in July fighting
Taliban insurgents in the southern Helmand province, in an
upsurge of violence ahead of presidential and local elections
on August 20.
In his letter Glenton said: "The war in Afghanistan is
not reducing the terrorist risk, far from improving Afghan
lives it is bringing death and devastation to their country.
Britain has no business there."
Bureau Report
First Published: Thursday, July 30, 2009, 20:57