US Edition 
Wikileaks: No 10 urged commander to play down Afghanistan failures
A senior adviser to Gordon Brown put pressure on the commander of Nato forces in Afghanistan to play down the “bleak and deteriorating” situation to reduce criticism of his government, leaked documents disclose.
Mr Brown, the prime minister at the time, visited the country and met Gen Stanley McChrystal, the US military commander, who described the growing threat posed by the insurgency and warned that the Afghan authorities faced a crisis of confidence.
A cable states that a security adviser to Mr Brown told Gen McChrystal — with Mr Brown present — that his “bleak assessment” could result in negative press coverage.
Gen McChrystal, who was later forced to resign, refused to back down. The cable, passed to The Daily Telegraph by the WikiLeaks website, states: “COMISAF [Gen McChrystal] replied that while he was sensitive to that impression, he would maintain his intellectual honesty – and that what might be perceived by some as a bleak assessment, might be considered by others to be 'realistic’.”
At the time, Mr Brown was under scrutiny over equipment shortages and the number of British soldiers being killed. He was being urged by Army chiefs to “get more boots on the ground”.
The cable states: “COMISAF stressed that while the situation in Afghanistan was “serious and deteriorating”, the mission could still be accomplished with proper resources and a focus on ANSF [Afghan National Security Forces] expansion and partnering.
“Threats to security emanated from a resilient and growing insurgency, a crisis in confidence toward the government and its abilities and overall questions about Nato commitments.
“COMISAF said that without additional resources, current efforts would be “fixed” – but with more resources, enough terrain could be controlled to deny the Taleban strategic traction.” The meeting was held at Camp Leatherneck in Helmand in August 2009.
Mr Brown said that the British public needed to see more evidence of progress. “He repeated that the UK domestic audience needed to be able to judge successes 'month-to-month, not year-to-year’.”
Just over a month later Mr Brown attended a similar meeting in London with David Miliband, then foreign secretary, Gen McChrystal and Adml Mullen, US chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Simon McDonald, then head of foreign and defence policy, asked the Americans to show “sympathy for the pressure” that Mr Brown was under. Mr Brown “repeatedly and forcefully” underscored the need for Afghan forces to play a much greater role. According to the cable, Mr Brown said his challenge was “persuading the British people that there was a way forward and not a stalemate”.
It continues: “Given the lack of trained Afghan security forces and the casualties that UK forces are suffering, it is difficult to make that case presently. He repeated that there is a need for a much larger number of Afghan forces and they must become much more effective.”