Afghanistan 'defining conflict' of the century

Tuesday, 11 November 2008 12:00 AM

Afghanistan may be the defining conflict of the 21st century, defence secretary John Hutton has said.

In his first major speech since taking over from Des Browne last month, Mr Hutton argued Britain's continuing involvement in the country "was and remains in our national interest".

He said the "repugnant" Taliban would have regained control in Kandahar and southern Afghanistan without British troops engaging them there.

And he pressed at the International Institute of Strategic Studies the fundamental reasons for Britain's ongoing commitment.

"It does strike to the heart of our interests as a nation and the preservation of values that all of us hold most dear," Mr Hutton said.

"My central argument is that these values are under attack and in new ways and by different means to those which characterised the two world wars."

Mr Hutton believes that a failure to fight terrorism in Afghanistan will result in the spread of extremism and further terror attacks on British soil.

"To those who say we can never succeed - walk away and accept defeat - I simply say this," he continued.

"The victims of that kind of defeatism would be the British people. We would abandon our ability to tackle terrorism at its source and we would then have to deal with it here, on our own streets."

Analysts are warning the conflict in Afghanistan is likely to continue for decades and the new defence secretary said it would take "years" to resolve.

A unified strategy marrying military, economic and political progress is being implemented by the United Nations but progress can only be made in the context of a strong military position, Mr Hutton argued.

"If there is one concrete lesson from history it has taught us. there can be no long-term solution to any conflict without a political settlement. But history also teaches us that we must negotiate any political settlement from a position of strength," he finished.

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