Parliament to be recalled re: Taliban in Afghanistan

[Mr K]

Originally Posted by papa smurf

Yes good old joe has blood on his wrinkled hands.

He was continuing the same policy as your buddy Donny. 'America First bring our troops home....' All conveniently forgotten now?

Same as with Iraq. We want quick military solutions but aren't prepared to follow it through in the years afterwards, and are gobsmacked when the countries revert to chaos when we lose interest.

Originally Posted by Mr K

He was continuing the same policy as your buddy Donny. 'America First bring our troops home....' All conveniently forgotten now?

Same as with Iraq. We want quick military solutions but aren't prepared to follow it through in the years afterwards, and are gobsmacked when the countries revert to chaos when we lose interest.

Plus damned when we do,damned when we don't. Maybe it's time to stop trying to sort out every tottering government/regime. Yes it worked in WW2 but it's not worked every time since.

[mrmistoffelees]

Originally Posted by Mr K

He was continuing the same policy as your buddy Donny. 'America First bring our troops home....' All conveniently forgotten now?

Same as with Iraq. We want quick military solutions but aren't prepared to follow it through in the years afterwards, and are gobsmacked when the countries revert to chaos when we lose interest.

From a time perspective we followed it through. We spent twenty years fighting the taliban and training their military & police and providing them with equipment.

But we (and by we i mean NATO) failed by

Not understanding the complex political/historical situation in Afghanistan

Allowing the corruption to continue unabated in the military & police.

it's hardly surprising that they collapsed/withdrew when they hadn't been paid for months & had no resupply

[Pierre]

Originally Posted by Mr K

He was continuing the same policy as your buddy Donny. 'America First bring our troops home....' All conveniently forgotten now?
.

why didn't he not continue it then?

[nomadking]

Link

President Barack Obama had promised to end the war, so on Dec. 28, 2014, U.S. and NATO officials held a ceremony at their headquarters in Kabul to mark the occasion.
...
In a statement, Obama called the day “a milestone for our country” and said the United States was safer and more secure after 13 years of war.
“Thanks to the extraordinary sacrifices of our men and women in uniform, our combat mission in Afghanistan is ending and the longest war in American history is coming to a responsible conclusion,” he declared.
...
Obama had scaled back military operations over the previous three years, but he failed to pull the United States out of the quagmire. At the time of the ceremony, about 10,800 U.S. troops remained, a decrease of almost 90 percent from the surge of forces that he had sent to Afghanistan in his first term. Obama promised to withdraw the rest of the troops by the end of 2016, coinciding with the end of his term in office, save for a residual force at the U.S. Embassy.

[1andrew1]

The Afghanistan occupation will definitely generate history books and case studies on how not to re-construct a country for many years to come.

---------- Post added at 10:04 ---------- Previous post was at 10:03 ----------

Originally Posted by Pierre

why didn't he not continue it then?

US public opinion favoured an exit I guess. Doesn't excuse it though.

---------- Post added at 10:07 ---------- Previous post was at 10:04 ----------

Originally Posted by mrmistoffelees

From a time perspective we followed it through. We spent twenty years fighting the taliban and training their military & police and providing them with equipment.

But we (and by we i mean NATO) failed by

Not understanding the complex political/historical situation in Afghanistan

Allowing the corruption to continue unabated in the military & police.

it's hardly surprising that they collapsed/withdrew when they hadn't been paid for months & had no resupply

Yes, the government machinery and economy was in no state to function when we pulled out. All well and good providing weapons but you need a functioning state in place too after an occupation that can stand on its own too feet. We knew that in WW2.

---------- Post added at 10:18 ---------- Previous post was at 10:07 ----------

UK has a moral responsibility to rescue everyone in Afghanistan who assisted us and to take in its fair share of refugees resulting from the Taliban taking over. Nigel Farage may not like it but it's the least we can do.

The same applies to the other countries involved including of course the USA.

[peanut]

Originally Posted by 1andrew1

UK has a moral responsibility to rescue everyone in Afghanistan who assisted us and to take in its fair share of refugees resulting from the Taliban taking over. Nigel Farage may not like it but it's the least we can do.

The same applies to the other countries involved including of course the USA.

One argument that was discussed on TV this morning is where will they go when we struggle to even look after our own.

[1andrew1]

Originally Posted by peanut

One argument that was discussed on TV this morning is where will they go when we struggle to even look after our own.

We made them our own by getting involved in the first place.

[nomadking]

Originally Posted by 1andrew1

The Afghanistan occupation will definitely generate history books and case studies on how not to re-construct a country for many years to come.

---------- Post added at 10:04 ---------- Previous post was at 10:03 ----------


US public opinion favoured an exit I guess. Doesn't excuse it though.

---------- Post added at 10:07 ---------- Previous post was at 10:04 ----------


Yes, the government machinery and economy was in no state to function when we pulled out. All well and good providing weapons but you need a functioning state in place too after an occupation that can stand on its own too feet. We knew that in WW2.

---------- Post added at 10:18 ---------- Previous post was at 10:07 ----------

UK has a moral responsibility to rescue everyone in Afghanistan who assisted us and to take in its fair share of refugees resulting from the Taliban taking over. Nigel Farage may not like it but it's the least we can do.

The same applies to the other countries involved including of course the USA.

All 35 MILLION of them?
Here's an idea, why don't they remain there, get off their backsides and do something about it themselves.

[jfman]

Originally Posted by nomadking

All 35 MILLION of them?
Here's an idea, why don't they remain there, get off their backsides and do something about it themselves.

Maybe they would if every 20 years or so we didn’t arm the other side to the teeth.

[Carth]

Originally Posted by 1andrew1

We made them our own by getting involved in the first place.

You maybe did, I certainly didn't.

Some of us knew better than to get involved . . what was that quote about history and same mistakes or something?

[Pierre]

Originally Posted by 1andrew1

UK has a moral responsibility to rescue everyone in Afghanistan who assisted us and to take in its fair share of refugees resulting from the Taliban taking over.

I don't think we do.

We certainly have a moral responsibility to those who've helped us and are now at risk of death for doing so.

[nomadking]

Anybody would think that Afghanistan was the only place on the planet that a certain section of the World population insists on taking over chunks of the World.

[1andrew1]

Originally Posted by Carth

You maybe did, I certainly didn't.

Some of us knew better than to get involved . . what was that quote about history and same mistakes or something?

The UK got involved regardless of whether we thought it was a bad idea or not.