Troops in Afghanistan face defeat at home-Top general says Afghanistan army in morale crisis

---


Troops move towards Taliban positions during a battle in Marjah in Helmand province

THE head of the army has warned that British troops are facing a crisis of deteriorating morale on the home front that risks undermining the war in Afghanistan.

In a confidential draft memo prepared for ministers, General Sir David Richards, chief of the general staff (CGS), said that recent cuts to the defence budget are having a “cumulative and corrosive effect on our soldiers and their families”.

Cuts to housing, shortages of training equipment and even the cancellation of sports events between soldiers’ tours of duty were making them and their families feel “undervalued”, the army chief wrote.

The leaked memo will be seized on by the Tories as opening a new front in the tussle between army chiefs and ministers over the politically sensitive issue of defence cuts.

It echoes the row last year when Richards’s predecessor, General Sir Richard Dannatt, stepped down after speaking out about equipment shortages as well as poor pay and conditions. It later emerged that government figures had tried to smear him over his expenses.

A senior military commander emphasised yesterday that it was not Richards’s intention to criticise ministers: “He’s not whingeing. He’s simply trying to flag up what he believes is a vital issue that needs their urgent attention.”

In the memo to the defence board, which comprises ministers and service chiefs, Richards shifts the focus of criticism from the war effort in Afghanistan to the treatment of troops on their return home.

While there had been “significant progress” on the front line, Richards said, the treatment of soldiers when they returned for 24 months between tours is so poor that it is threatening to undermine the war effort.

Marked “restricted”, the memo reports a summary of an internal “poll” of 5,000 soldiers and their families at units in Britain, Germany and Cyprus over the past four months.

The survey was discussed at the executive committee of the army board this month. Its results appear to be so alarming that Richards decided to alert ministers to its key findings.

“My greatest concern ... is the deteriorating experience of soldiers and their families ... between tours which, the [survey] team reports, is disaffecting attitudes, damaging morale and risks undermining our ability to sustain the campaign . . .” he wrote.

“We need our soldiers to be ready, mentally and physically, to endure repeated tours in Afghanistan, in a harsh environment, with the real prospect of significant casualties each time.

“To maintain the necessary morale and cohesion, they must see tangible signs between tours that they and their families are valued.”

Last July the army was forced to make savings of £43m to help the Ministry of Defenc keep within budget. In October a further £54m cut was announced so resources could be focused on the war in Afghanistan. About £14m of those cuts meant delays to upgrades to living quarters for more than 4,000 troops.

The memo says: “The team reports the cumulative and corrosive effect that [such cuts] are having on our soldiers and their families.

“As CGS, I register an early concern about the impact on morale, the potentially severe downstream impact on retention and our ability to sustain the campaign in the longer term.”

An army spokesman said: “The report notes that soldiers feel increasingly well supported and resourced on operations and praises medical care in-theatre and in the UK.


------

-------

-----

-------



“It also relays concerns about the effect of financial pressure on activity in between operational tours and provides early warning of the resulting impact on morale. Resources are tight at the moment and Afghanistan is the main effort.”