Afghanistan: How Britain should respond to crisis – Yorkshire Post Letters

THAT image captured on TV of the giant American plane taking off with bodies clinging to it will haunt me for the rest of my days.

Not so the blatherings in the House of Commons last Wednesday with the exception of the handful of MPs who have seen military service, and spoke from the heart and experience rather than scoring political points.

Of course, we must try to help these desperate people, but don’t forget we live in an increasingly small island, population-wise.

Calderdale has been mentioned as a possible area to house some of these people. Let’s not forget levelling up. An excellent site to my mind would be in or around Chequers. Lots of unused rooms and plenty of land for house building. Charity begins at home, Boris Johnson.

We should also be aware of the potential threat to those brave and possibly terrified army and RAF personnel who are trying in dreadful circumstances to extricate as many people as possible from Kabul.

From: Rev Dr John Cameron, Howard Place, St Andrews.

WHILE assuring Americans “the buck stops with me”, President Biden clearly blames everyone but himself for the foreign policy catastrophe unfolding in Afghanistan.

In a rambling, petulant speech he accused President Obama of starting the debacle by surging US forces to fend off the Taliban; President Trump for negotiating a deal with the Taliban committing US forces to leave this year; and Afghan troops for being unwilling to defend their own country. But the fact is that since taking charge of the ground war in 2014, the Afghans lost over 50,000 men but fought the Taliban to a military stalemate.

Biden’s impulsive, impractical decision to withdraw US air support and intelligence information regarding the disposition and strength of Taliban severely affected Afghan troops and depressed their morale. His closure of seven military bases at the height of the fighting season precipitated their collapse.

From: ME Wright, Harrogate.

THANKS again to Jayne Dowle for expressing the thoughts of so many of us in the ongoing Afghanistan tragedy and its likely effect on their and our children and grandchildren (The Yorkshire Post, August 19).

Let’s not forget that our involvement came about from yet another historic, forelock-tugging “whatever you say Mr President”. Though seemingly a vast improvement on Donald Trump, I wonder where we’ll stand – or rather bend the knee – when it comes to President Biden?

From: Henry Cobden, Ilkley.

THERESA May struck exactly the right tone in Parliament over Afghanistan. Just a shame that she was treated so shabbily by her party over Brexit. Irrespective of the circumstances, she always put duty first.

Support The Yorkshire Post and become a subscriber today. Your subscription will help us to continue to bring quality news to the people of Yorkshire. In return, you’ll see fewer ads on site, get free access to our app and receive exclusive members-only offers. Click here to subscribe.