by Chris McLaughlin
The Government has warned military chiefs to stop playing politics with the lives of British troops in Afghanistan. The move comes amid complaints, led by the head of the army, General Sir Richard Dannatt, that frontline combatants in Helmand province have too few helicopters and numbers.
The Treasury was blamed for blocking adequate funding for the offensive against the Taliban but Chancellor Alistair Darling has called in the top brass in a bid to halt the public row.
He reminded the military chiefs that the Government has given the forces the resources they have asked for in active operations in Afghanistan, with £3.5 committed from the national contingency fund this year.
In a reflection of the message given to the generals, Mr Darling told Tribune: “So far as we are concerned, the troops are doing a job of work in Helmand province and the army has said ‘this is what we want in terms of troops and equipment’ and we have provided and financed it.
“I am very clear that if you ask troops to go and do something, especially in the face of acute danger in somewhere like Afghanistan, you have to make sure there are sufficient troops and that those troops are sufficiently equipped to do what is asked of them.”
Since Mr Darling called in the chiefs, only maverick “goat” minister Lord Malloch-Browne has sought to continue the public row over the shortage of helicopters.
One Whitehall insider close to the debate said: “We wonder what they are playing at. They would not have moved like this against Thatcher.”
