Why We Shouldn’t be in Afghanistan

What are we doing in Afghanistan, one of the poorest and most backward countries in the world. Would Afghanistan, even if it were governed by the Taleban, really pose a threat to global security? We are told it would become a training ground for al-Quaeda. There is a likelihood of that it is true, but then they already have a training ground in the Sudan to provide them with the required succour and to serve as a safe haven. As the army in Pakistan (a nuclear power) struggle to defeat Taleban and al-Quaeda forces in their own country, the West continues to stand aside and fight a pointless, and quite probably unwinnable war in Afghanistan.

History tells us that you cannot successfully impose, at the point of a bayonet, alien political values on a country that neither understands nor desires them. The recent example of that shambles of an election is evidence of this. Afghanistan is a tribal society and the people will vote for the representatives of their tribe or as their tribal elders tell them. In a system such as that western style democracy counts for little. In a recent news item a young woman was training to be a midwife, when asked she said that she had sought permission to attend the school from her local Mullah and tribal elder. The fact that she had to seek permission at all is significant, yet no mention is made of approaching an elected official or Government agency. The simple fact is that decisions have always been made in Afghanistan according to well-established rules and traditions. Something that is little mentioned is the fact that Afghanistan as it is constituted is the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, are allied soldiers really dying to support and sustain a country that views the Islamic Republic of Iran as a role model. Should we doubt this then let us remember the recently passed law that permits a husband to starve his wife should she refuse his sexual advances.

The recent elections in Afghanistan were a travesty. In total only 35% of the electorate voted, and millions of those votes were fraudulently cast. Over a thousand allied soldiers have died to sustain a man, Hamid Karzai, in power who was not willing to even guarantee a free and fair election. A man, who freed of the prospect of a second round of voting because of the withdrawal of his main rival, we are now told by our esteemed governors has a mandate to rule having been voted for by less than 15% of the electorate in a fraudulent election. I await his hasty departure from Afghanistan to Saudi Arabia with the proceeds of the countrys treasury tucked away in his personal Swiss Bank account. Because his notoriously corrupt Government will fall. Do British, American and other allied troops really continue to die for this.

The allied nations do not know what to do. The truth is that they want to withdraw but they cannot face the humiliation of defeat. A failed strategy has left them in the lurch. All this nonsense about training the Afghan army when we know that as soon as western forces withdraw from Afghanistan they will desert in their droves and return to their tribal loyalties. It is not the first, and will probably not be the last example, of young men and women fighting and dying to save the face of incompetent, embarrassed and compromised politicians. The simple fact is that our strength and resources can be better used elsewhere. Bring our troops home now!