Over at The Independent, there is an extract from former Lib Dem leader Lord (Paddy) Ashdown’s speech to the Royal Institute of International Affairs at Chatham House examining the situation in Afghanistan. Here’s an excerpt:
… the chief reason for the fact that we are losing lives is not in the ineffectiveness of the Afghan government, who we love to blame, but in our own complete failure to have any coordinated international plan; in our inability to work together between the nations of the coalition; in our determination to see Afghanistan solely through the prism of the place in which we each happen to be fighting; and in our refusal to coordinate ourselves in order to produce a single countrywide strategy which enables us to speak with a single voice and act with a single purpose. The real scandal in Afghanistan is not that our soldiers don’t have the right boots, or enough helicopters. It is that they are paying with their lives because our politicians cannot or will not get their act together.
You can read the full article HERE.
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One Comment
The “Full article” seemed also to be rather abridged.
we have to respect what Paddy Ashdown acheived, remarkably, in Bosnia. However we also know he would have led the Lib Dems into supporting the war in Iraq (and I wonder how many would have agreed with him in the Lib Dems had he had done so?). Recently he admitted that we were right on that, and he was wrong, and I respect him for that as well.
As far as Afghanistan is concerned, I think he is wrong. Unfortunately there is a high price to be paid whatever policy position you support in Afghanistan. I think we have to work out what we can and cannot do in Afghanistan. We have already been there for 8 years and we are still stuck there, despite previous efforts that were made saying that we were winning the war there.
To me it is obvious that like Iraq, we are stuck in a quagmire and we should get out. Our troops are losing their lives, with nothing to show for it.
Unfortunately we are dammed either way. I certainly would not like to see the Taliban back in power, but in some parts of Afghanistan and Pakistan they are already in power. A military onslaught may reduce their numbers in the short term, but they simply come back again in bigger numbers.
It is all very well saying we should cooperate better with our allies. The fundamental reason we are losing is lack of support from the Afghan people which is why the Taliban are calling the shots and not us.
There is no answer to Afghanistan, but regardless of that we still need a policy. I asked Paddy at a fringe meeting how long we should expect to saty in Afghanistan. He said about 30 years. He might as well said indefinitely, since you cannot plan a 30 years war. I recommend our policy should be to get out of there within 3 months.