A soldier faced his court-martial Monday for refusing to return to Afghanistan as the armed forces minister insisted that the fight against the Taliban was improving Afghan lives.
Lance Corporal Joe Glenton, from the Royal Logistic Corps, is the first soldier to have very publicly deserted rather than take up arms again in Afghanistan.
His trial comes as the surging British death toll in Afghanistan raises questions about Britain's involvement in the conflict.
Glenton wore military fatigues for a preliminary hearing at a military court in Bulford Camp near Salisbury in southwest England. His lawyer indicated that he would plead not guilty.
Judge Advocate Alastair McGrigor adjourned the case for another preliminary hearing on September 4. Glenton faces a maximum of two years' imprisonment.
The lance corporal, who did not speak at the hearing, was to return to duties with his regiment.
The 27-year-old on Thursday handed in a letter to Prime Minister Gordon Brown's office calling for troops to be withdrawn from Afghanistan, saying Britain's mission there would fail.
Glenton joined the British Army in 2004 and served one tour of duty in Afghanistan. He went absent without leave in 2007 before handing himself in after two years and six days.
He was then on leave until Monday.
In his letter to Brown, Glenton -- who has joined the Stop the War Coalition, a prominent left-wing umbrella organisation regularly staging protests -- said Britain was bringing "death and devastation" to Afghanistan.
The campaign "has caused immeasurable suffering not only to families of British service personnel who have been killed and injured, but also to the noble people of Afghanistan," he wrote.
"The war in Afghanistan is not reducing the terrorist risk; far from improving Afghan lives it is bringing death and devastation to their country. Britain has no business there."
British forces in Afghanistan have suffered their highest casualty rate since the US-led invasion of the country in late 2001.
Twenty-two soldiers were killed in July fighting Taliban insurgents in the southern Helmand province, as British troops waged the attack phase of Operation Panther's Claw, beating back the extremists ahead of elections on August 20.
But Britain's armed forces minister Bill Rammell -- fresh back from Afghanistan -- insisted that British troops were making a difference in the country.
He said British forces were denying hardcore Islamists a safe haven to operate from, and Panther's Claw had succeeded in clearing the Taliban from central Helmand.
"We have inflicted heavy losses on the insurgents, decimating their command and control structure, weakening their resolve, and splitting them up," he said in a speech.
The push was being followed by civil reconstruction projects, providing schools, clinics, roads, water and electricity, he said, without which "we would not be able sustainably to rid Afghanistan of the Taliban," he said.
"It brings faith in the Afghan government and provides the opportunity for insurgents to lay down their arms and take up peaceful life."
He added: "A critical point often misunderstood is that we are not trying to impose an idealised Western democratic model or run Afghanistan ourselves.
"Ultimately it will be the politics of development, reconstruction and reintegration that will bring lasting stability to the region -- no place for the terrorists to hide -- and no reason for people to hide them."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090803...ghanistancourt
these type of soldiers are the ones you can call real heroes.