I visited Afghanistan twice as a minister with responsibility for driving forward the economic development effort that we were making there. In fact, I had spent some time in the country on a number of visits in the mid-nineteen- seventies when it was a very different country. I recall hiring a horse for a couple of days and riding out on my own to the stunning lake at Band-e-Amir and to the standing Buddhas at Bamiyan (- subsequently destroyed by the Taliban).
Given the blood and treasure that we have sacrificed over the last twenty years, I believe that NATO’s withdrawal is a profoundly mistaken policy. It is some years since NATO troops were actually involved in the fighting: with the exception of US air attack missions, NATO’s contribution has been largely confined to training and mentoring the Afghan security forces, whom we are now abandoning.
The advance of the Taliban is a catastrophe for women, girls and religious minorities, as well as to the ordinary liberties of everyone in that country. The prospects for educated women, many of whom have taken leading roles in the Parliament, media and the professions, are particularly bleak.
We can expect another even greater wave of refugees seeking to arrive on our shores.
The Chief of the Defence Staff, Sir Nick Carter has said that we shouldn’t write-off the Republic yet: that there are signs that the population is showing the sort of defiance needed to win this battle; that they are rallying in support of the security forces which are pursuing a sensible and realistic strategy of consolidation to fight the Taliban to a stalemate. He says we must help them stay firm and force the Taliban to the negotiating table. He concludes that much depends on who wins the “battle of the narratives”
He’s right: winning the ‘battle of the narrative’ is vital for morale, the maintenance of which, is a most important principle of war and essential to success.
Our policy however, appears designed to do the exact opposite. We do seem to be ‘writing-off’ the Republic. Our proper concern for the safety of Afghan interpreters who served our armed forces is laudable and indeed, our sacred duty. Our haste however, in securing their evacuation, sends a clear signal to those who are still fighting, that we believe there is no hope. Now a similar commitment is being given to evacuate Afghan journalists.
I pray that the Afghan warriors, so many of whom have been trained by UK forces at our ‘Sandhurst in the Sand’, will prove the defeatists wrong.
Sir Desmond Swayne TD
