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26-08-2021, 06:38 AM
Tue 17 Aug 2021 19.18 BST
The UK’s latest Afghan war, the fourth since 1839, has ended in failure. There is no consolation in claiming that this shameful retreat was down to a bungled withdrawal of US forces by Joe Biden. Britain scuttled out at the same time
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The UK is currently driven by a desire to stay close to the US. But America is a superpower, able to shrug off defeats and move on. The blow of losing Kabul is felt more deeply in a Britain shorn of substantial global influence.
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In Afghanistan, the US judgment that a combination of special forces, local proxies and air power would wipe out domestic resistance to a military occupation was flawed. The Afghan security forces that Nato trained were exposed as a shell.
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Western politicians prefer to tell a story of progress in Afghanistan. Yet this has come at a high price. Since 2001, the US has spent nearly US$145bn (£106bn) rebuilding Afghanistan. By 2019, the average Afghan student received four years of schooling. Twenty years ago it was just two. In a report last month for the US Congress, the special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction noted that “many students, particularly girls, remain out of school”.
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Elections were held in Afghanistan but the institutions that support democracy were not allowed to take root. One elected president, Hamid Karzai, fell out with the Americans so badly he threatened to join the Taliban himself.
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It must be clear by now that nations cannot be hustled at the barrel of an American gun into the postmodern age
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After 20 years of disastrous results, British ministers should reach for a new approach. After all, relations between London and Washington have historically never been entirely unconditional. Yet the government speaks of creating new special forces regiments and naval “littoral strike groups” for international interventions. Britain used to station military forces around the world to maintain its empire. It should think twice about doing so for someone else.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...l-disaster
The UK’s latest Afghan war, the fourth since 1839, has ended in failure. There is no consolation in claiming that this shameful retreat was down to a bungled withdrawal of US forces by Joe Biden. Britain scuttled out at the same time
......
The UK is currently driven by a desire to stay close to the US. But America is a superpower, able to shrug off defeats and move on. The blow of losing Kabul is felt more deeply in a Britain shorn of substantial global influence.
......
In Afghanistan, the US judgment that a combination of special forces, local proxies and air power would wipe out domestic resistance to a military occupation was flawed. The Afghan security forces that Nato trained were exposed as a shell.
......
Western politicians prefer to tell a story of progress in Afghanistan. Yet this has come at a high price. Since 2001, the US has spent nearly US$145bn (£106bn) rebuilding Afghanistan. By 2019, the average Afghan student received four years of schooling. Twenty years ago it was just two. In a report last month for the US Congress, the special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction noted that “many students, particularly girls, remain out of school”.
......
Elections were held in Afghanistan but the institutions that support democracy were not allowed to take root. One elected president, Hamid Karzai, fell out with the Americans so badly he threatened to join the Taliban himself.
......
It must be clear by now that nations cannot be hustled at the barrel of an American gun into the postmodern age
......
After 20 years of disastrous results, British ministers should reach for a new approach. After all, relations between London and Washington have historically never been entirely unconditional. Yet the government speaks of creating new special forces regiments and naval “littoral strike groups” for international interventions. Britain used to station military forces around the world to maintain its empire. It should think twice about doing so for someone else.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...l-disaster
