The Huffington Post (Free subscription) | 07/11/2009
The dimensions of the unfolding disaster in Afghanistan are becoming bigger and more daunting by the day. Once-staunch defenders of the "good war" are starting to break ranks. Kim Howells, a former Foreign Office minister with responsibility for Afghanistan and current chairman of the parliamentary intelligence and security committee, questions in our newspaper today the central tenet of...
Radio 4 - Today (Free subscription) | 07/11/2009
Britain's presence in Afghanistan has been seriously questioned this week following the deaths of seven army personnel, and calls from former junior Foreign Office minister Kim Howells MP to withdraw all troops from the country. Prime Minister Gordon Brown yesterday defended Britain's continued presence, saying that troops there are "our first line of defence" against terrorist attacks on...
anticant's arena (Free subscription) | 07/11/2009
It used to be the received wisdom that when you find yourself in a hole, the sensible thing to do is to stop digging. Nowadays, however, the new orthodoxy is that when in a hole, you should dig ever more frantically until – with luck – you re-emerge at the Antipodes. With scarcely a break in the serried ranks of government and opposition until the other day, when Kim Howells took upon himself...
John Lilburne (Free subscription) | 06/11/2009
, sta “[Kim Howells] has the classic New Labour profile and like fellow migrants from the far left – Straw, Reid, Blunkett and Clarke – he has retained a love of state intrusion and is, as they all are, an enthusiast for ID cards. There is a part of Howells that remains firmly rooted in the [...]
The Guardian (Free subscription) | 06/11/2009
It's time for Gordon Brown to ditch the fine-sounding language, and work out how to leave Afghanistan – the sooner, the better Gordon Brown's speech this morning was his most sombre assessment so far of the risks and difficulties in Afghanistan. He made clear his determination to keep plugging on. But is the argument for this war not beginning to collapse in on itself? Judging by recent polls,...
Whitehall 1212 (Free subscription) | 06/11/2009
Gordon Brown will this morning pledge to stay the course in Afghanistan against mounting political and public disquiet over the eight year military campaign that has now cost 230 British lives. At the end of grim week for British soldiers in Afghanistan Mr Brown is due to make a major speech in London in which he will restate his personal determination "not to walk away" from the war. With...
The Guardian (Free subscription) | 06/11/2009
To withdraw our troops now would be to betray the people of the region It is very disappointing that Kim Howells, who was closely involved in the planning for the Helmand taskforce, has now changed his mind about its value ( It's time to pull out of Afghanistan and take the fight to Bin Laden in Britain , 4 November). He claims: "It would be better ... to bring home the great majority of our...
EuropeNews (Free subscription) | 05/11/2009
DianaWest.net 5 November 2009 By Diana West Kim Howells is a British Labour MP who formerly oversaw Afghanistan for the Foreign Office, supported the war there, and now serves as chairman of the parliamentary intelligence and security committee. I can't imagine that I would find all of his policies to be my cup of tea, but in today's Guardian , he published a proposal containing some extremely sensible...
Left Foot Forward (Free subscription) | 05/11/2009
On Tuesday evening, the Guardian carried a piece by Labour MP Kim Howells asserting that the time has come for UK forces to withdraw from Afghanistan and reallocate the resource dedicated to the conflict to an increased security presence in the United Kingdom itself. Dr Howells’s concern with appropriately focusing the ...
Guerrilla Welsh-Fare (Free subscription) | 05/11/2009
Kim Howells calls for a withdrawal from Afghanistan is welcomed news. The former Labour minister is following the lead set by Adam Price way back in August when he put forward an early day motion on the issue. The Lib Dems have been flirting , incoherently at times, with the idea of coming out in favour of withdrawal. The more political pressure that can be put on the government now the better. The...
Skipper (Free subscription) | 05/11/2009
It was hard not to agree with Kim Howells yesterday, the former Foreign Office minister and respected voice among Labour MPs. Between them US and UK have spent $230 billion on the war and lost over 1500 young lives, 229 of them British. And what have we to show for it? Continuing support for a hoplessly corrupt administration propped up by war money, war lords and the drug trade. Simon Jenkins has...
NYOOTW (Free subscription) | 05/11/2009
Everywhere you go at this time of year the humble poppy can be seen on people's lapels as ordinary people show their silent solidarity with the couragous soldiers who put their lives on the line in the name of what politicians call our security interests. The poppy appeal is particularly relevant at the moment because of the current deployment in Afghanistan and the latest news that 5 servicemen were...
The Heathlander (Free subscription) | 05/11/2009
Today Kim Howells, Labour MP and chairman of the British Intelligence and Security Committee, urged a withdrawal from Afghanistan – significant given that he was the former Labour foreign office minister and a strong supporter of the war. Support for the war is waning in both the US and Britain while, as Johann Hari points [...]
Jess The Dog (Free subscription) | 04/11/2009
I was shocked and saddened by the loss of life reported this morning, 5 soldiers murdered when training the Afghans. This comes on top of the tragic loss of the bomb disposal expert SSgt Ofaf Schmid, whose efforts demonstrated the utmost courage. These deaths are tragic enough, and all too often they leave young families behind as well. This calls into question the whole "exit strategy."...
The Guardian (Free subscription) | 04/11/2009
The shooting dead of five British soldiers by a policeman in Helmand province has struck at the heart of the government's "new strategy" for Afghanistan. Concerned about growing opposition to Britain's military presence in Afghanistan, underlined by Kim Howells, a former Foreign Office minister, in today's Guardian, the cabinet and defence chiefs are pinning their hopes on training, mentoring,...
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