Maybe Cameron's recent visit to Camp Bastion signaled the withdrawal of 500 British troops from Afghanistan. Facing deep cuts in spending, the British army is itself now in the crossheads. Seven thousand troops have already been cut, with the regular army likely to be slashed by 17,000. At the same time, there's a 1.5 billion pound investment in Britain's territorial forces.
"We could only see a reduction in the regular army if two things happen. One is that we actually do put the investment into the result. They are better trained. They are better equipped. We set out the skills we expect of them more explicitly and of course that we have successfully withdrawn from Afghanistan."
If the army is cut by 17,000 troops, it will reduce it to its smallest size since the Boer war. British army currently has around 101,000 regular troops and 36,000 territorials. By 2020, the number of full time personnel could be down to just 84,000. The number of reservists would stay the same. A new review of British reserve forces which Liam Fox will endorse found they faced years of neglect, pointless reorganizations and decline. He is expected to announce new specialists' roles for TA, including cyber security, intelligence and homeland security.
"Unfortunately, if you are looking to balance the books, there is only and one service left to look at, and that is the army. Is that the brilliant situation to be in? Absolutely not. But when you have people saying, that the ministry is insolvent, what else do you do?"
Liam Fox's announcement comes as a new defense committee report, heavily criticizes the way British troops were deployed to Helmand in 2006. He claims there was a failure of communication between then Defence Secretary John Reid and military commanders. He says troops were left unsupported and fighting for their lives.
The committee concludes that pulling out of Afghanistan now would be dangerous and says that there are still not enough helicopters for the difficult and dangerous jobs British troops have been asked to do.
Simon Newton, Sky News.
