Government left saving face over Afghanistan - Yorkshire Post Letters

THE OFFICIAL position is that Afghanistan’s fall within a matter of months was clearly inevitable, but no one could have foreseen it happening so quickly.

Who did they suppose would fight on for these extra months? Did they imagine their dismal view would not reach the Afghan soldiery?

The British Government judged, I would guess correctly, that the public would not stomach the level of renewed military commitment needed to tip the balance in the recent Afghan war.

Unfortunately, they also lacked the good sense and honesty to run this view past Parliament and the public. Had they done so they could now answer those asking “why did you stand by and let this happen?” with “because that’s what you told us to do”.

This leaves them looking to save face.

They risk being side-tracked on to such trivia and IS and terrorist attacks on the West.

Hilary Andrews, Nursery Lane, Leeds

I WATCHED the whole of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee session interrogating Dominic Raab about the rapidity with which the Taliban were able to take over in Afghanistan.

It seemed to me that these MPs were more concerned with making their views heard rather than listening to what the Foreign Secretary had to say about what went wrong with the evacuation procedure and what future steps needed to be taken.

In particular it was amazing to hear from the Labour MPs, supported by SNP MPs that an exit plan should have been in place when we went into the country. Have they forgotten that it was Tony Blair and his Labour cronies who took us in on false intelligence along with his friend George W Bush?

Martin Schweiger, Leeds

MANY MILITARY men and women along with thousands of civilians have died in the last 20 years in Afghanistan. The main winners at this stage appear to be the arms manufacturers and the Taliban. We need real courage to try a radically different approach to dealing with our enemies.

Good fortune has provided us with both faith groups and academic institutions, such as Peace Studies at Bradford University, who can collectively guide our nations.

Diplomacy needs adequate resourcing to enable real win/win solutions to be identified and worked for. Military might has failed, it is time to try something more sustainable.