France is the most influential EU member. Germany is second. Italy and the UK come somewhere like joint third.

Britain is not a member of the Schengen agreement (passport free zone) and is not a member of the Euro. While Britain and France are both significantly better equipped militarily than other EU members, the chances of Britain ceding any sort of control of military or defence matters to collective EU decision making are damn close to zero.

Besides his record on Iraq, this pretty much kills the Blair candidacy for the EU council president’s role.

Milliband has already withdrawn from the process to select a high representative (foreign minister role).

Besides, the UK fiscal position is WORSE than that of the US, and we don;t have the worlds reserve currency. If you can imagine how it would be for the US if the world didn’t buy and sell all commodities in US$ any more, then that is where the UK is right now.

We really can’t afford this war., and the public are against it.

@Faisal Nazir – once elected a British administration operates with “Royal Prerogative” i.e. it really does have the ability to operate pretty much as a third world dictatorship. Because they know that another election will come, this is limited BUT a prime minister can take the country to war without reference to either parliament or to the public. I think Blair seeking the approval of parliament for the Iraq campaign was a first for us.

why would a recently elected politician expend politcal capital on that?

Oh, several reasons. Privileging a relationship with the US over internal politicking, taking a long view of the engagement in Afghanistan as a preventative measure against terrorism. I’m not even saying they’re good reasons, really, but that there are some.

Regarding McChrystal, I doubt he expected to get all that he asked for, but I do expect he conferred with his colleagues in ISAF and took the British presence in Afghanistan well into account when making his assessment of what could be accomplished there. I doubt in July/August he viewed British withdrawal as likely.

While the troop deaths in Helmand are significant, their effect is more to raise the question of ‘why are we there’?

Well, yes, that’s more or less my point. I think the place of divergence is that I don’t think the politicians, whether Labour or Conservative, will actually draw down British troops, despite public opinion; but those troops deaths went a long way towards inflaming public opinion.

As to its affordability…while it seems a good point, I don’t know that it will matter, honestly. I think, despite the recession (an economic hurt I felt intimately living in Britain last year) a war commitment will continue. As to whether the politician’s answers are satisfactory, well, I suppose the election will play that out in some way. But from what I’ve read, I don’t think either Labour or the Conservatives are arguing a withdrawal. Please correct me if I’m wrong on that.

@AJK, I’ve gone off on a sort of abstract political thought, but the fiscal support (or lack thereof) a good point.

I would agree with this, in the sense of my above point that the eight years fighting this war has dampened public support of it. But I don’t think the political pressure is actually there to withdraw, at least not more significantly than maintaining the international political balancing act between the US and the EU.

If the British political leadership is really concerned about preserving the UK’s status as a major regional power, then I can see a concrete motive for toughing it out in Helmand.

Sure, that’s certainly part of it. Probably the main part. But it isn’t merely about power; it’s also about defense, and protectionism, and the fragile creation of a president-led EU that may or may not find a British leader in that role. As Britain becomes further ascendant within the EU, it seems to me that it also shoulders some responsibility for defense of the institution, and insofar as its identified enemy comes out of Afghanistan/Pakistan there is a line of reasoning that offers another motive for presence there.

I won’t speak to whether those motives are correct, but I do think they exist.

I am not sure if the public opinion has any influence on government’s policy making process?

In Britain, and the US, and Germany, and other nations, it most assuredly does.