Lib Dems moving towards advocating withdrawal from Afghanistan

Bruce, UK

“I think there’s a tipping point where we have to ask ourselves whether we can do this job properly, and if we can’t do it properly we shouldn’t do it at all."

The Lib Dems in a nutshell. I look forward to the disbandment.

David Lindsay

"by the time of the next election the Lib Dems will be for withdrawal from Afghanistan"

God help us if we are still there by then.

Hysteria

ironic that if we choose to fight the war against the jihadists at home (only) then we will give up even more of our liberal freedoms - which will no doubt get the LibDems into a tizzy.

drakes drum

At last one politician with some guts!

I knew Cameron couldn't do this. Cameron is no strategist.

Ray

Given the Lib-Dems unrivalled ability to 'play to the gallery' on a whole host of issues - national and international - it amazes me that the party is still as pro-EU as it is.

jon dee

It may not be bandwagon status yet, but is he just anticipating a continuing trend in public opinion?

Charlie T

All conservatives should support pulling out of Afghanistan. It isn't our fight and isn't worth a fingernail of a British soldier.

frank goddard

Have you noticed with Brown when he stands at the pulpit pontificating on anything,and trying to be so convincing,its always "I believe",and not "we believe".I thought that he was a prime minister(not a president), and had a cabinet around him that agreed to what he would say on any important issue he was about to give.Everything he says seems to be on the hoof as tho' he and only he was the inspiration behind his rhetoric,so dictatorial,another Adolf Hitler perhaps!!! In his two years he has had more "I believes" than Frank Ifield with his hit record.
TIME for a GE me'thinks, this man is definitaly on the wrong track with everything(look at the economy) he espouses,no wonder the country is as it is.Afghanistan of course is the last straw.My heart bleeds when I see the young men dying for a useless cause.Browns argument of terrorists on the streets does not wash with me.If he had controlled our borders properly,our streets properly,and our immigration properly,then we would not have to be in the situation we are now.I agree with Clegg, and Cameron has to now make sure he will announce a withdrawal ASAP before any GE, and carry it out as soon as he is (if) elected.
Frank G....English pensioner

LarryG

hello. i am an American of the opinion we have no good reason to be there. if Taliban came to my home we would kick their butt. fighting insurgents, as patrolling warriors: sets us up- alike clay pigeons on a shooting range. we can overkill; at the expense of $1o,000,000/ bad guy. certainly, there is no source of young men in the country to become police, to retain whatever advances we make. the objective is fuzzy, there is no exit strategy, and tribal chiefs do not want us there. insurgents should be fought with insurgents, and infiltrators; as evidenced by the massacres after beginning the pullout in Iraq. we did not succeed there. i feel like an aggressive invader in Afghanistan, and that is very far from American foreign policy that many Americans can support. it would be great to see you can no longer condone this slaughter. i am not in favor of the Taliban, i just do not agree with this military tactic. it is senseless waste of young human lives: ours and yours, and theirs. unleashing the military after them is saying we can not fight them more intelligently. fighting without winnable objectives is defeat, a war that should not be fought.

Josh

Who cares? I'd be surprised if 33% of the population knows who Cleggover is. He and his party are a complete irrelevance. They were a guilty treat during years of economic boom, but during a bust, people want a strong government that dosen't have to fiddle around looking for deals.

It's a pity the media hasn't highlighted what a bunch of opportunistic dirtbags the Illiberal Democrats are

TrevorsDen

" ask ourselves whether we can do this job properly, and if we can’t do it properly we shouldn’t do it at all."

Pardon me but this is a statement of the bleedin' obvious.

The point is we can indeed do the job properly - well we can indeed do our share of the job.

The point is we cannot do it if (on top of a trillion pound national debt and a deficit of 200 billion) we spend further billions on aircraft carriers and super duper jet planes all with no one to fight.

Our defence budget needs to be tailored to the immediate needs of our armed forces and not the job needs of Govan and multi national arms companies and their agents.

And before we move forward in the future we have to admit the failures of the past.
Brown and Labour have been managing every aspect of this war in disastrous fashion.

Verity

And in the photo, does he look thick round the middle, or what?

Doesn't he realise what a good tailor is for? And doesn't he realise, as aspirational David Cameron doesn't realise either, that men in situations that require suits, should wear suits? Not partial suits?

Trousers and shirtsleeves and ties are beyond the pale. They are no more business attire than are t-shirts and running shorts. How do these people, and I include, in a very large way, David Cameron, think they can patronise the electorate like this? That they don't even have to adopt formal business attire to address them? That they should patronise what they clearly see as "the little people" by not looking "too posh". Gawwwwdddd!

Holly

Nick Clegg doesn't know his arse from his elbow.
Would he be capable of pulling out at the crucial moment?

Roger

The Lib Dems were right about Iraq and I would suggest they are right about Afghanistan. We have to have at least one party in this country that speaks with some moral courage. I should add that it was Vince Cable who warned us that we were running into a debt crisis in Britain, isn't he a Lib Dem too. I am sure not everything they support is sensible or right but I am also quite sure they do not 'play to the gallery' the way some have suggested.