QUOTE OF THE MONTH

‘Tony Blair this pledged to give our troops whatever they need in Afghanistan. His words are a mockery.

The Army, already desperately overstretched, has scarcely an extra unit to commit to Helmand. Even if it did, there are no helicopters to move them. The Prime Minister cannot magic Chinooks out of a hat, and well he knows it.

Helicopters are vital because there is no other effective way for troops to get around an area as big as Scotland. Adding an extra battalion or two to the 3,300 British troops on the ground in Helmand is a token.

To do the job for which the Government has signed up its hapless soldiers, they do not need 4,000 of 5,000 men on the ground. Realistic planning would demand 50,000 or 100,000. These troops do not exist.

In Blair’s Britain we have had gesture education policy, gesture health policy, gesture justice policy. Now, in Afghanistan, the Prime Minister gives us gesture military strategy.’

Max Hastings writing in the Daily Mail.