THE GUARDIAN: The fall of Kabul to the Taliban should spark a more honest debate about the UK’s unconditional support for US plans
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 prime minister telling MPs on the day of Mr Biden’s announcement that “there is no military path to victory for the Taliban”. As events subsequently proved, Boris Johnson’s assessment of the situation was badly wrong. The extent of the military and political catastrophe for the UK that the blitzkrieg Taliban takeover represents is hard to overstate.
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. This has led the UK to take Washington’s lead in military affairs. 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. In 20 years, according to Brown University’s Costs of War project, more than 170,000 Afghans have lost their lives. The death toll was rising. In June almost 1,000 Afghans were killed in the simmering civil war. A few weeks later half the country was under Taliban control. » | Editorial | Tuesday, August 17, 2021
Biden Rattles U.K. With His Afghanistan Policy: Britain was the second-largest supplier of troops to Afghanistan, and the United States’ rapid withdrawal from the country has left some embittered. »
We are being led by clowns, fools and idiots! These so-called leaders have absolutely no understanding of so many important geopolitical matters; further, they never think through the impact of their stupid policy decisions on the lives of others, especially the lives of others living in foreign lands. As for understanding Islam and the Islamic world, they are totally and utterly clueless!
As far as the US is concerned, it is high time that American voters started electing leaders of a higher calibre. They need to choose leaders of distinction. There are very many Ivy League university graduates in America who would surely qualify. In addition, why do Americans always choose such old presidents? Trump was an old clown; Biden is … © Mark
