Young British men and women are putting their lives at risk in Afghanistan.  Martin and the Lib Dems believe we should do everything possible to support them with the best equipment and resources and that we need to develop a more successful strategy for winning the war - or face the difficult decision to pull out.

Martin and Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg have specifically called for our troops to be paid at least as much as a trainee police officer.  It cannot be right that a Royal Marine hero has been forced to sell his medals to help buy a home for his family.  The civil servants serving in Afghanistan are paid bonuses twenty times more than front-line troops.

Click here to sign up to the Better Deal for Our Troops campaign online.  Ring 224889 for a paper copy of Martin's petition.

The war in Afghanistan is very different to the invasion of Iraq which Martin and the Lib Dems opposed.  In Afghanistan we are part of genuinely international coalition, supported by international law, and fighting an enemy that actively supported the Al'Qaeda attacks on the United States and Europe.  In fact the ill-judged and probably illegal war in Iraq probably did more to distract the west from the real task in Afghanistan than anything else.

But the strategy for the war needs to change.  At the most basic level, our troops do not have enough helicopters or well-enough protected vehicles for the threat they face.  To win the battle for hearts and minds, they need the support of a free and honest Afghan government, not one that has been allowed to drift into a culture of corruption.  And we need a more concerted international strategy from all the countries participating in the international coalition.  If, ultimately, we believe that the war in Afghanistan cannot be won, then it would be immoral to send more young men and women to their deaths for a lost cause.  We are not in that situation yet but our government and its allies need to urgently raise their game.  Our courageous troops deserve better.