We thought he might have waited until Obama blew the whistle, but he cannot even wait that long. Then, Cameron has his little venture in Libya to feed, in order to keep the Kermits happy, and we cannot afford this war as well ~(or either).
And while the military want to maintain a presence, one can actually understand the reluctance to accept their assurances as to what is necessary, not least when we learn that "serious intelligence failures meant British commanders were unprepared for the Taliban-led insurgency in Afghanistan".
One has slight difficulty with this. It seems more likely that these were not so much intelligence failures, as the complete absence of intelligence ... amongst the High Command who planned and executed this operation.
From this distance, briefing MPs on likely developments, we were able correctly to anticipate Taliban moves which these brave and highly-paid soldiers, with all their resources and staff, could not detect, even some time after the enemy had made their play. Yet, now these same military geniuses want their current advice to be taken seriously.
Through gritted teeth, we have to concede that Cameron is right to pull the plug. In fact, the move is long overdue. But now he has the convenient excuse of the OBL death narrative, he should get the troops out as fast as possible. Our only consolation is that he is probably doing the right thing for the wrong reasons.
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