14 November 2009

With our tails between our legs

In the countries which have troops there, opinion is shifting increasingly in favour of withdrawing them from Afghanistan. In the two main provider states, US and UK, president Obama and prime minister Brown are both obviously considering it as an option; populations in both countries are ahead of them.

I am one of those who doubt that the troops are doing anything useful there. As with Iraq, the intervention in Afghanistan was incompetent at best and ... at worst would take more time and heart than I have for it at the moment. But withdrawal will be yet another in the long chain of betrayals which we perpetrate over and over again: enter, promise the world, realise the cost and withdraw leaving locals to carry the can. Even as I agree that troops should be withdrawn, I am deeply ashamed.

1 comment:

Geoff Powell said...

I also feel much shame at our actions in Iraq, Afghanistan and the other places around the world where we interfere.