Sunday 1 August 2021

Lord David Richards, former Chief of the Defence Staff, 31.7.2021

who commanded all Western forces in Afghanistan in 2006/7.

He used the words, 'nadir' and 'defeat' in Afghanistan but added that what happened in Iraq, Libya and Syria.  And, it is a pretty sorry tale of Western failed GO strategy over the last twenty years and its time we had an explanation of why and what we are now going to do about it.

"Weren't mistakes made earlier?" asked Mishal Husain.

I accept my share of the blame, said Lord Richards.

We introduced democracy and that allows them to hope for the future and that is at great risk with no substitute strategy.

"But is this not an impossible mission to control a country like Afghanistan", asked Mishal Husain?

The Afghans don't want to be ruled by the Taliban and successive elections have proved that.  This is not some popular uprising.  This is a brutal and effective military force driven by some very hardline ideology that wants to impose themselves on the vast majority of the people of Afghanistan.  


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