Last week, Ming Campbell wrote to the Prime Minister calling for an urgent review of the Government’s military strategies. He wrote:

Dear Prime Minister,

It is now urgently necessary for a reappraisal of government strategy in relation to Iraq and Afghanistan. The current level of British casualties is unacceptable.

In the case of Iraq, what is being achieved by the continuing British presence? Our troops are severely restricted in what they can do and they are subject to unreasonable risks. There is now a clear recognition that the objectives of their mission cannot be achieved.

It is nearly a year since Sir Richard Dannatt’s realistic analysis of the British position and nothing has happened since to contradict him. Is it the case, as some have argued, that our continuing presence in Iraq is now only to show solidarity with the United States? Were that to be so, could it be justified against the present level of our casualties?

There are persistent reports that there will be a reduction in the number of British forces deployed to Iraq. It is time to set a framework for the complete withdrawal of all of our forces. The need to do so is underlined by the situation in Afghanistan where our forces are at full stretch. Their position would be made much easier if we were not engaged simultaneously in two such demanding deployments. Afghanistan poses a severe challenge for our forces with its triple requirement to fight the Taliban, to win hearts and minds, and to implement the counter narcotic policy.

In short, is it not clear that withdrawal from Iraq would give us a considerable advantage in Afghanistan, where the military advice is that NATO’s mission can still be successful.

It is time to make the necessary strategic adjustment. Recent events demand it.

Yours sincerely,

Menzies Campbell

Responding to the Royal Mail’s announcement that families will soon be able to send care parcels free of charge to troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, Leader of the Liberal Democrats Ming Campbell said:

“I am pleased that families can now send care parcels free of charge to their loved ones serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. This small step may make an enormous difference to the morale of those fighting in these difficult deployments.

“The Ministry of Defence must now work with the Royal Mail to ensure that the free parcel service is maintained after Christmas.”

The Liberal Democrat Leader Ming Campbell has called for the Government to review its strategies in Iraq and Afghanistan following the revelation that British troops in Afghanistan are more likely to be killed in action that at any time since the Second World War.

The Daily Mail reports:

Soldiers are being killed in such numbers that if the current level continues the losses will be greater than among U.S. troops in Vietnam.

One in 36 would not survive a six-month tour of duty - a more chilling toll than experienced in the Falklands or the Korean War.
[…]
LibDem leader Sir Menzies Campbell said the Government needed to review its strategy in both Iraq and Afghanistan “before the death toll rises further.”

He added: “These statistics are deeply saddening, above all because they represent personal tragedies for hundreds of British families.

“But they are also an indictment of a Government which has no clear idea how to get British forces home without further heavy loss of life.”

Meeting a delegation of Gurkha veterans, Liberal Democrat Leader Menzies Campbell said that successive governments should be ashamed of failing to look after these veterans and causing them to live in poverty. He called for an immediate review to deliver fairer pensions to the many Gurkha veterans on low pensions or no pension at all.

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Speaking at today’s Prime Minister’s Questions Menzies Campbell called Tony Blair’s decision to renew the Trident nuclear weapon system “hasty”. The Liberal Democrats would cut Britain’s nuclear arsenal by half and kick-start disarmament talks.

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