Election politics at play over Afghanistan withdrawal

Lord Stirrup just told Radio 4 about the “suspicion” that Obama was operating his Afghan withdrawal to a political timetable, and that “election deadlines in our own countries” should not dictate the timetables. Note that plural, “countries.” To be fair, when Martha Kearney pressed him, he insisted he was “content” with the British timetable. But “political” it is.

It’s quite well known that Team Obama before coming to office took the view that they would have to be withdrawing from Afghanistan by the time of the next presidential contest to have a decent chance of re-election (even if they’d surged in between).

It’s less well known that David Cameron and George Osborne had similar conversations before coming to office here. George Osborne formed the view that Afghanistan had to be receding from view by the time of the next election and he and David Cameron both believe that getting a fixed deadline for the withdrawal of British combat troops from Afghanistan, in the teeth of fierce resistance from senior military, is amongst their proudest achievements in office.

There was a time when David Cameron himself used to say artificial deadlines for withdrawal – the old Lib Dem position – were unwise. That died some time ago. As William Hague said this morning, 2015 is a “no ifs or buts” deadline.

Incidentally, Lord Stirrup appeared to say that David Cameron’s slap-down to military chiefs to let him “do the talking” was “simplistic.”