The unfolding events in Afghanistan prove, as if further proof were needed, that our 20 year war there was completely and utterly pointless. This was foreseeable and foreseen, predictable and predicted.
Rather than confront Saudi Arabia, we pretended that the attacks of 11th September 2001 had come from Afghanistan. Then we shifted to pretending that it was about the awfulness of the Taliban, setting a pattern for the novel concept that we ought to invade countries merely because they had dreadful governments. Iraq and Libya lay ahead.
And now, we have demonstrably failed on both counts. Having kicked us out, the Taliban are back, and they are at least as bad as they ever were. Moreover, the changes in them that our war has engendered mean that they will turn Afghanistan into the global hub of Islamist terrorism that we tried to delude ourselves that it was 20 years ago.
Who will say this in Parliament?
ReplyDeleteI am standing again. Let's get the reckoning going in earnest in the next Parliament.
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