Globalisation:First defence:Rt.Hon Liam Fox:Recent Articles

Recent Articles

Here is a recent article from the Ministry of Defence Website with the Rt. Hon Liam Fox, and his opinion on Afghanistan.

Defence Secretary Dr Liam Fox gave an interview to Sky News yesterday evening during which he spoke about operations in Afghanistan and the progress that has been made in Helmand province over recent months.

Asked whether we are winning the war against the Taliban, Dr Fox said:

"Yes, I think we are. If you spend time visiting our troops on a regular basis, you can see the differences.

"A couple of months ago, three months ago, say, if you went to Lashkar Gah in Helmand you would have to be in an armoured vehicle and wear body armour. Now there are three flights a day from Lashkar Gah to Kabul for business people, and simple things like the ice factory being open - being distributed to the local bazaars to keep food and fruit fresh - was a sign of economic activity coming back, and that's because we have been able to liberate people from the oppression of the Taliban.

"It's not to say that there's not a considerable insurgency still there. But there's no doubt that we're making progress, and when we talk about the difficulties, we have to be honest about the gains that we're making, and I think we have to be balanced about that."

Dr Fox was asked about how easy it is for insurgents to lay the bombs or improvised explosive devices (IEDs) which have been the main cause of loss of life amongst British troops in Helmand. He said:

"Well, one of the points that I think we should take issue with is that they [the insurgents laying the IEDs] are operating almost with impunity. Even in the filming we saw, they were stopped several times because of ISAF helicopters operating in the area, so increasingly they are being disrupted.

"We have a number of ways of protecting against these devices - obviously we have armoured vehicles to protect our personnel; better than that is if we can disarm them.

"It's not to say that there's not a considerable insurgency still there, but there's no doubt that we're making progress." Dr Liam Fox

"Even better than that is where we've had considerable success in recent months, which is being able to disrupt the networks that plant them and the supplies that help create them. It's our intelligence as much as anything else which is making a difference."

Dr Fox was asked whether the evidence that suggests the Taliban appear to be spreading to other areas around Afghanistan is worrying. He replied:

"You can look at that two ways, can't you, because if they're appearing elsewhere, it may well be that they're being squeezed out of areas like Helmand. There's no doubt that the Taliban and their command structure has been under enormous pressure down in the south of the country.

"There's no doubt that those who see themselves as being a shadow government have found themselves under increasing pressure. That's a good thing, and we should want to see the Taliban becoming more desperate.

"We need to remember that when they [the Taliban] talk about networks in Britain and they talk about having fighters ready, we've got to be very careful that we're not inadvertently putting out Taliban propaganda.

"I understand entirely why we should be wanting to see what the enemy looks like, but we have to take - with a very large pinch of salt - anything they say, because what they are looking for is, of course, free access to public opinion in the United Kingdom.

"And we have to counter that by saying that what we're doing is protecting the population of Afghanistan, trying to give them a chance to shape their own destiny, and to push back the men of violence who would set the country back even more than the position that they left behind when they were swept away in 2001."

"We know that there are terror networks that have been spreading internationally," he said. "One of the whole reasons of going to Afghanistan was to try to stop that. And I think that to simply accept that what they tell us is true is to give them a platform - which I think a lot of people would find very questionable.

"Now, this is a free country, we have free media - it's one of the things that makes us better than the people trying to undermine us - but we have to counter-balance that freedom with the responsibility of not assuming that what they tell us is true.

"We know from the 7/7 bombings in London that there are attempts to create terror networks here. We know from the Security Services that they are constantly trying to break up terror plots in the United Kingdom.

"And what people need to understand is that this is the nature of the people we are facing: they are willing to blow up our soldiers and, incidentally, civilians in Afghanistan - the vast majority of the casualties are ordinary civilians, people who may themselves walk on IEDs, who become collateral damage to the Taliban; it's how they see it.

"They would be happy to blow up men, women and children in the underground in London or anywhere else that they could. That's what transnational terrorism looks like.

"We didn't choose to take up this fight; we didn't choose aeroplanes flying into Manhattan on 9/11, but the challenge has been thrown down to us and we have to take it up or we will see more of these incidents and more of these threats; these are people who dislike us, not because of where we are or what we do, but they dislike our very way of life and who we are and our history.

"The broader battle against transnational terrorism is as much an ideological battle as anything else, and we have to continue to pursue that."

"And that's something that we have to be willing to stand up against."

Asked if he feels that we are winning that battle, if we in the UK are getting the better of this challenge, and will eventually stop an enemy that currently seems to undermine our country and our very culture, Dr Fox said:

"The broader battle against transnational terrorism is as much an ideological battle as anything else, and we have to continue to pursue that.

"In Afghanistan, I think, we've got to be very careful not to always see Afghanistan through the prism of Helmand.

"We tend to see our news in Britain according to what's happening to our Armed Forces, but if you go to the west of Afghanistan or up to the north of Afghanistan, you will find whole areas where the writ of the Government is now there; where economic activity is picking up; people are having new police forces; they've got the protection of the Afghan Army; and life is beginning to return to, what we might regard as normal, when they've had 30 years of war.

"And it's important to see Afghanistan in the round, and I think it would be extremely helpful if we took on wider filming about Afghanistan as a whole country; you know, only about 3.5 per cent of the population live in Helmand; only about 1 per cent of the Afghan population live in the area covered by British troops.

"So, I think to see the whole picture of Afghanistan, the areas where peace and normality are returning, would be a very good counter-balance to Taliban propaganda."

Dr Fox concluded by answering whether in the end is the only way we're going to achieve peace in Afghanistan by talking to the Taliban. He said:

"Well, it depends who you mean by the Taliban. Of course, there will be a political settlement of some sort - there always is at the end of an insurgency. The question is who are the people who are reconcilable to the Afghan Government - the constitution and the democratic set-up in Afghanistan - and who are willing to make agreements and allow that to happen?

"And who are those who are irreconcilable, who will never ever accept the democratic government and who would never accept anything other than a very violent anti-Western fundamentalist view?

"I'm afraid that those people have to be confronted because they're a threat, not only to the stability of Afghanistan, but our own national security.

"It would be very nice to live in a world where there were no fanatics but we have to side with the ones who are reconcilable, and then take on the fanatics - that's the only way to have peace and security."