Army chief wants respect for troops

By Luke Baker

LONDON (Reuters) - The top military officer said on Friday the conflicts Iraq and Afghanistan were winnable and the troops fighting there deserved more respect.

General Richard Dannatt, chief of the general staff, also dismissed criticism emanating from Washington over the past two months suggesting that British troops had lost in Iraq. He said nothing was further from the truth.

"We have not lost a single, significant tactical engagement," Dannatt said during a speech to the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

"The British army in southern Iraq has not been defeated... Failure is not an option in our current campaigns or in the next ones - for the sake of our nation or our professional reputation."

Describing the war in Iraq as "clearly unpopular" at home, and the conflict in Afghanistan as misunderstood, Dannatt lamented the fact the British public showed far less admiration for their armed forces than Americans do.

In the United States, he said, troops were frequently feted with homecoming parades, free tickets to sports games and discounts on goods in shops and restaurants. In Britain, such outpourings of support are rare.

"Soldiers are genuinely concerned when they come back from Iraq to hear the population that sent them being occasionally dismissive or indifferent about their achievements," he said.

"There is not an appreciation, or even understanding, among wide sections of the community of exactly what we ask our armed forces to do, and we're asking an awful lot of them."