Bob Ainsworth has done little to bolster confidence in New Labour's handling of this war. One of the issues that plagued our Iraqi deployment was a continual emphasis upon the number of troops and their entry or withdrawal from the theatre of war. This was used to little effect by Gordon Brown. To say that any Minister is not aware of the importance attached to this issue is wrong. If they are, then they are too stupid to stay. If they are not, then this a cynical attempt to mislead the public's perception of a troubled period for our soldiers.
Mr Ainsworth was accused of "false optimism" when he suggested Afghan troops could take the lead in operations in as little as a year. "I genuinely believe that in the next year or so, we will be able to show a degree of progress," he told the BBC. "It won't be a situation where we'll be able to pull back. But we will increasingly see the Afghan national army taking the front. We will be more in a mentoring and training situation, supporting them, giving them the steel, capability and the knowledge to be able to do the job. But they will be taking the lead."
Even this distracts and detracts from the debate that we need to have: why are we there and what are our aims?