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It shouldn’t be if the UK is going to pull out of Afghanistan, but rather “when”. Gordon Brown is facing an election soon (one he and his party could place third in) and the calls are coming from all sides to pull British troops out of the Afghanistan. It will be interesting to see how Brown balances domestic and international pressures. My guess is that he will promise some troops, though a small amount, preferably in the always ambivalent “non-combat roles”. Don’t even expect that to last long though. There won’t be any UK troops in Afghanistan by the time the US ’surge’ reaches its end, something that could spell doom for an already failing state.