PM (Gordon Brown) : I will not risk British lives if Afghans do not end corruption

[brooklynite]

Source: Manchester Guardian

Britain "cannot, must not and will not walk away" from Afghanistan, Gordon Brown said today.

The prime minister also gave the Kabul government a stern warning that it had to clean up and reform if it was to continue receiving international help.

...snip...

Brown explained that he had spoken to Karzai several times this week and said the two men had agreed a set of goals covering five areas – security, governance, political reconciliation, economic development and relations with neighbouring countries.

"If the government fails to meet these five tests, it will not only have failed its people, it will have forfeited its right for international support," Brown said. He did not explain what the practical implications of this warning might be.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/nov/06/gordon-brown-afghanistan-soldiers-corruption

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I agreed with the original entry of American troops into Afghanistan, and the need to keep a military presence there to try to stabilize the nation so it wouldn't provide a platform for terrorists to regroup in our absence. But, I concur that the Afghan Government needs to do its part as well.

[David Zephyr]

1. Bravo. Why are our kids dying so these crooks can line their pockets...again?

Get out of Afghanistan.

Our young people have lives to live with their loved ones.

Let Karzai and his minions defend themselves. They have enough of our money now to do so.

[Libertas1776]

2. I wish our Prez

would share such sentiments.

[jenniferj]

6. The Brits are getting more and more angry...

The five men that were shot was a turning point, the country isn't happy.

[MindandSoul]

3. Good for you Brown!

The British Prime Minister is enterely right! I hope President Obama takes notice!

[silver10]

4. Not to mention the U.S government corruption...

that needs to be cleaned up too.

[xchrom]

5. kick

[Nihil]

7. Ignore the headline - Brown hasn't changed at all.

It is only in the headline that any hope is offered whereas in the
article itself, he is still up to his wrists in blood (as usual).
:-(

[T_i_B]

8. We might as well mention the current anti-Brown stuff from the Sun at this point

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8349757.stm

Gordon Brown has telephoned the mother of a soldier killed in Afghanistan to apologise after apparently misspelling his name in a letter of sympathy.

Guardsman Jamie Janes, 20, from Brighton, East Sussex, was killed in an explosion in October.

In a video distributed by the Sun newspaper, his mother Jacqui called the letter a "hastily scrawled insult".

According to the Sun, his mother Jacqui was angry when she received the prime minister's letter of condolence in which he appeared to misspell Guardsman Janes's name as "James".