We're in no mood for the PM's weasel words

The Government has a very big day in the court of Parliament tomorrow on Afghanistan. The message for Gordon Brown is loud and clear from public and parliamentarians alike - it's time for the weasel words to stop.

Fewer Britons, according to latest polls, believe the mantra that our boys are fighting in the squalor and heat of the Helmand Valley to make the streets of our cities safe from terror. On the other hand, few believe it is time to pull the plug on the Afghans and our allies right now - but a timetable must be set for British withdrawal sometime in the near future.

The Government must answer why it has not provided the levels of forces and equipment requested by commanders for the task that it has set them.

This is highlighted by the devastating attack on the Government's disastrous record on helicopters in the defence committee report out tomorrow morning. At every turn the Government has gone for the short-term, cut-price offer rather than the better-value, long-term solution.

Grudgingly Gordon Brown has eked up the numbers, reinforcing the British force in Helmand by 730 and then 140. But why not provide the extra 2,000 soldiers requested by American and British commanders alike for this campaign against the Taliban in the Helmand Valley?

It is fashionable to paint the history of the New Labour war machine being driven from Kosovo to Helmand with Tony Blair's foot on the accelerator while miserly Gordon Brown stamps on the brake pedal. If only it was that simple.

Several defence chiefs have told me that Gordon's biggest weakness is his indecisiveness. One former chief told me: "He just couldn't make the big life and death choices - and Tony Blair wasn't much better either - he would think going into Iraq with the Americans was a good thing, but didn't know what to do then.

"Faced with a tough decision Brown reaches for a quango or an inquiry and tries to forget."

The nation is in no mood to let him forget now. He must cut out the weasel words - and the dithering - before more soldiers lose their lives in Helmand.

As for a renewed strategy and vision? That would be a miracle, and will have to wait for another day and another gsovernment.