.
In a period of ten days, fifteen British soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan in a service which the Foreign Secretary says is ‘about the future of Britain’. When troops were first deployed to there three years ago the then Defence Secretary hoped they would complete their mission without a shot being fired. Oh, how things have changed.
I know nothing about the war against the Taliban in Afghanistan, its tactics or the people involved - except that no country has ever won against the hill tribesmen. When Russians exited the country after their failed campaign there, I remember commenting to a Russian friend that I was surprised his government hadn’t learned from our experience there in Victorian times.
And yet here we are again, part of NATO and along with US forces, fighting Taliban tribesmen who seem more than competent to take on disciplined and well-equipped forces.
I don’t know what the answer is to what is undoubtedly a highly complex issue, but it sometimes seems to me that if, as reported, Afghanistan has 90,000 troops of their own then we ought to withdraw and let them get on with it.
Then we would be spared the pictures of British and American soldiers returning home in their coffins.
.
In a period of ten days, fifteen British soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan in a service which the Foreign Secretary says is ‘about the future of Britain’. When troops were first deployed to there three years ago the then Defence Secretary hoped they would complete their mission without a shot being fired. Oh, how things have changed.
I know nothing about the war against the Taliban in Afghanistan, its tactics or the people involved - except that no country has ever won against the hill tribesmen. When Russians exited the country after their failed campaign there, I remember commenting to a Russian friend that I was surprised his government hadn’t learned from our experience there in Victorian times.
And yet here we are again, part of NATO and along with US forces, fighting Taliban tribesmen who seem more than competent to take on disciplined and well-equipped forces.
I don’t know what the answer is to what is undoubtedly a highly complex issue, but it sometimes seems to me that if, as reported, Afghanistan has 90,000 troops of their own then we ought to withdraw and let them get on with it.
Then we would be spared the pictures of British and American soldiers returning home in their coffins.
.
No comments:
Post a Comment