Regime change usually involves chaos, bloodshed and a humanitarian crisis. Has the Stop the War movement become Continue the Military Intervention?
We could have degraded Al Qaeda and then left. Or else pursued a proper counter-insurgency plan. Instead, we did neither.
Afghan security force members are being murdered. Girls’ schools are being shut down. Iran and Russia are weighing up a return to the quagmire.
We urgently need an inquiry to understand our strategic failures in the country, and what went wrong.
It can become the best again, but only if the land forces element is revisited in the Government’s proposal.
The only real hope that exists for lasting peace is to strengthen the Afghan government and its institutions, not undermine them.
I’m glad to see we’ve now had the guts to stop a tanker we believe is smuggling Iranian oil in defiance of sanctions on Syria.
We could have degraded Al Qaeda and then left. Or else pursued a proper counter-insurgency plan. Instead, we did neither.