Majority of Britons oppose Afghan war
LONDON: Britons remain opposed to the war in Afghanistan but the level of opposition has not risen much over the past three years despite a rapidly rising death toll, a poll for the BBC showed yesterday.
Fifty-six percent of those surveyed said they were against British military operations in Afghanistan, while 37 percent supported them, the ICM poll found.
The same poll three years ago found 53 percent opposition and 31 percent support.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, trailing in opinion polls with an election only months away, has faced increased criticism over the rising death toll in the conflict, where barely a day goes by without another British soldier killed.
The war is regarded as a factor likely to sway Britons who appear ready to vote Brown's Labour out of office and return the centre-right Conservatives to power for the first time since 1997. An election is due by June 2010.
Critics of the Labour government say the 9,000 troops serving in Afghanistan lack adequate equipment and that support for injured servicemen also needs to be improved.
The Conservatives, traditionally a party hawkish on defence, have promised to get more equipment to troops and to send more forces to help train the Afghan army, positions which are not very different from Labour policy.
The two ICM polls span the period in which Britain has faced a marked increase in violence in Helmand, the province of southern Afghanistan where the vast majority of the 9,000 troops are based.
The force was deployed to Helmand in mid-2006, when there was relatively little Taliban violence. Between the start of the war in 2001 and the end of 2005, Britain had lost just five soldiers. But since 2006, a further 215 have died.
Reuters
(China Daily 10/08/2009 page9)
