Arguments over the UK military strategy in Afghanistan have been high on the news agenda, but how do calls for a pullout affect serving soldiers?

Captain Andrew Tiernan of the Grenadier Guards, who came back from Afghanistan on leave on Friday and will be back there next week, told Today presenter John Humphrys that talking about a pullout "does not support the soldiers".

"If you really want to support the soldiers," he said, "you need to support the cause."

Captain Tiernan said the public does not understand the full extent of the work the army is doing.

He described his mission in a town in Afghanistan - involving both British and Afghan soldiers and Afghan policemen.

"We are able to keep the insurgents away from the district centre," he said.

"They close their doors at night and go to bed safe in the knowledge that ISAF and Afghan national security forces are securing them."