Britain shows signs of unease over rising Afghan toll (News Feature)

London - Every picture tells a story as conventional British reserve gives way to an uninhibited outpouring of emotion over the rising death toll in Afghanistan. Grown men in uniform comforting each other in an embrace as tears roll down their cheeks, angry grieving mothers and children left half-orphans are images that belie the traditional stiff upper lip and all-pervading patriotism of Britons. The remorseless rise in the death toll in Afghanistan has given special poignancy to commemorations to honour the war dead this week, with commentators noting a change in the public mood towards the sacrifices being made. Outside Westminster Abbey, where a special service for the dead of World War I was held Wednesday, onlooker Sheila Jones said she had - up to now - backed the war in Afghanistan, but changed her mind in recent weeks. 'Too many young men are dying, British troops must come home,' she said. Her comment came just days after Prime Minister Gordon Brown was involved in an embarrassing exchange of correspondence with Jacqui Janes, the mother of a soldier who died in Afghanistan. 'How would you like it if one of your children... God forbid, went to a war... and, because of a lack of helicopters, your child bled to death?', asked Janes in her telephone conversation with Brown which she recorded before selling it to the Sun newspaper for publication. Brown, expressing his condolences while insisting that the government was doing all it could to give troops the best equipment, had been 'disrespectful' over her son's death, Janes alleged later. She revealed that Brown's letter to her had contained 25 spelling mistakes, including misspelling the surname of her 20-year-old son as James - instead of Janes. Brown, humiliated by the revelations, told his monthly news conference Tuesday that he knew his handwriting was hard to decipher - partly due to his blindness in one eye - but also said that he understood the mother's 'pain.' 'I'm a parent who understands the feelings when something goes terribly wrong, and I understand how long it takes for people to handle and deal with that we have all experienced,' said Brown, in a reference to his first child, Jennifer, who died 10 days after her birth in December, 2001. According to commentators, the episode highlighted the fact that the Afghan war has begun to dominate the political agenda in Britain, increasing pressure on the government to explain the purpose of the troop deployment and to offer an exit strategy. A total of 233 British soldiers have died in Afghanistan since 2001, a toll marked by a sharp acceleration over the past few months. It is feared that the figure will soon surpass the 255 deaths British troops suffered in the 1982 war over the Falklands Islands. Opinion polls show that Britons are increasingly questioning the purpose of having troops in Afghanistan. A survey last week showed that 35 per cent were in favour of withdrawing troops, compared with 25 per cent just two weeks previously. According to an opinion poll in The Independent newspaper Wednesday, Britons also no longer unreservedly back the official justification for the war, which is that Britain's involvement is vital to keep terrorism away from its shores. On the contrary, 46 per cent of those asked said they believed that the presence of British forces in Afghanistan actually increased the threat of attacks by creating anger and resentment among the Muslim population in Britain, while 21 per cent supported the government line. Britain has said that it is pursuing a policy of 'Afghanization' of the conflict by training Afghan army and police to take over security in the country. But that policy suffered a sensitive blow last week when five British soldiers were shot dead by a 'rogue' Afghan police officer they were meant to train. Since then, there have been signs that an 'exit strategy' could soon be emerging from Downing Street. A government spokesman said for the first time this week that British forces hoped to hand over two districts in Helmand province by the middle of 2010. 'We will transfer authority district by district as an important part of Afghanization,' said the spokesman.