UK Conservatives Reject ‘Open-Ended’ Afghanistan Mission

The British Conservative Party has just wrapped its 2009 conference, its last before what is universally expected to be a 2010 victory over the ruling Labour Party. In his closing speech, party leader David Cameron appeared to put some daylight between the commitment of Prime Minister Gordon Brown and the commitment of the incoming government.

“We are not in Afghanistan to deliver the perfect society,” said Cameron. “We are there stop the re-establishment of terrorist camps.” The mission, as he described it: “We send more soldiers to train more Afghans to give us that security we need, and then we bring our troops back home.”