London - The liberal Independent on Sunday newspaper in its lead article Sunday cited waning public support for Britain's involvement in the conflict in Afghanistan and argued for a pullout. In an article titled "Afghanistan: Time to Leave" the newspaper became the first major newspaper in Britain to question the continued British military involvement, in the face of London still promising its unwavering support for the ISAF mission.
Citing a BBC survey showing 64 per cent of Britons believing the conflict cannot be won and the same percentage wishing for the quickest possible pullout, Independent said "Britain should start withdrawing, not reinforcing, its troops in Afghanistan."
The paper also said that "the nature of the conflict is changing" and that by now, the war which the Afghan government should be fighting was mainly being fought by the US and British.
"To more and more Afghans, this looks like imperial occupation," the paper said.
The newspaper's call came as meanwhile the Defence Ministry reported a further British soldier killed, bringing to 231 the total since the start of the Afghan conflict in October 2001.
Continuing to hold the government line, Defence Secretary Bob Ainsworth on Sunday stressed that Britain would not pull out of Afghanistan. He said the mission should not be guided by public opinion surveys.
On Friday, Prime Minister Gordon Brown had defended the British involvement with its 9,000 forces in Afghanistan.
But at the same time Brown issued a strong warning to President Hamid Karzai that he risked the withdrawal of international support if Kabul failed to improve security and root out corruption.
In its lead article, Independent on Sunday cited fears that British forces might become increasingly targeted in the coming months in a bid by the Taliban to stir up opposition to the Afghanistan mission ahead of parliamentary elections in mid-2010.
The paper said ISAF commander, US General Stanley McChrystal, was now thinking of pulling British forces out of the dangerous Helmand province and deploy them to less dangerous areas in view of the shift of public opinion in Britain.
