bobdina
09-25-2009, 11:55 AM
UK Commander, Afghan War Critic Resigns
September 25, 2009
Agence France-Presse
A senior army commander who led British troops in Afghanistan has quit, an official confirmed late Thursday, after reported clashes with the Prime Minister Gordon Brown's government over the conflict.
Major-General Andrew Mackay, a decorated officer who led British troops in southern Afghanistan in 2007 and 2008, has resigned, the Ministry of Defence said.
"We can confirm that Major-General Andrew Mackay has decided to leave the army. This is a personal matter for him," a spokesman said late Thursday.
Newspapers reported Mackay was extremely critical of the government's treatment of British troops, who have suffered a surge in casualty rates against an increasingly bloody Taliban insurgency.
Mackay had, in the past, expressed frustration at the lack of policy in the conflict and a failure to try to win over the local Afghan population in the south of the country where troops were fighting, the Independent said Friday.
He had sent a memo to London listing serious problems with troops' equipment, newspapers said.
The general had also been critical of restructuring carried out in the army in Scotland which he believed would damage future combat effectiveness.
Mackay had recently been promoted to the post of general commanding officer of the army in Scotland, the north of England and Northern Ireland.
Mackay led troops to recapture the key town of Musa Qaleh in 2007 from the Taliban, an operation that saw him awarded a CBE, Commander of the Order of the British Empire.
Brown has been forced to defend the government's strategy in Afghanistan in recent months, amid the spike in British troop deaths, which has sparked a row over whether soldiers are adequately resourced.
September 25, 2009
Agence France-Presse
A senior army commander who led British troops in Afghanistan has quit, an official confirmed late Thursday, after reported clashes with the Prime Minister Gordon Brown's government over the conflict.
Major-General Andrew Mackay, a decorated officer who led British troops in southern Afghanistan in 2007 and 2008, has resigned, the Ministry of Defence said.
"We can confirm that Major-General Andrew Mackay has decided to leave the army. This is a personal matter for him," a spokesman said late Thursday.
Newspapers reported Mackay was extremely critical of the government's treatment of British troops, who have suffered a surge in casualty rates against an increasingly bloody Taliban insurgency.
Mackay had, in the past, expressed frustration at the lack of policy in the conflict and a failure to try to win over the local Afghan population in the south of the country where troops were fighting, the Independent said Friday.
He had sent a memo to London listing serious problems with troops' equipment, newspapers said.
The general had also been critical of restructuring carried out in the army in Scotland which he believed would damage future combat effectiveness.
Mackay had recently been promoted to the post of general commanding officer of the army in Scotland, the north of England and Northern Ireland.
Mackay led troops to recapture the key town of Musa Qaleh in 2007 from the Taliban, an operation that saw him awarded a CBE, Commander of the Order of the British Empire.
Brown has been forced to defend the government's strategy in Afghanistan in recent months, amid the spike in British troop deaths, which has sparked a row over whether soldiers are adequately resourced.