British troops crucial to victory in Afghanistan war, top U.S. general warns

The military mission in Afghanistan will fail without British troops, a top U.S. general warned today.

By Ian Drury, Daily Mail, 9th June 2010.

General David Petraeus used a keynote speech in London to sound the caution as the UK suffered its 294th fatality when a soldier died in an explosion.


Gen Petraeus used his address to the Royal United Services Institute conference to warn that the mission would not succeed if British troops were brought home.

He said the UK-U.S. military alliance was central to efforts to fight extremism and heaped praise on Britain's role in operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

'It's clear that, as was the case in Iraq, the scale of the British contribution in Afghanistan is such that the coalition cannot succeed without you,' he said.

Gen Petraeus, head of the United States Central Command (Centcom) and architect of the American trooop 'surge' that crushed the insurgency in Iraq in 2007, said the U.S. and UK 'shared interests' in battling common threats in the Middle East and south-east Asia.

He hailed the 'world-class counter-terrorism expertise' of British special forces and UK soldiers who were in the 'thick of the fight in some of the toughest places in Afghanistan'.

'We're in this together': Gen. Petraeus with David Cameron at Downing Street

Britain has about 10,000 troops in Afghanistan, including some 500 special forces.

But Gen Petraeus' admiration for the bravery of British troops acquired extra poignancy when it was revealed another soldier had been killed by a roadside bomb.