John Redwood Conservative, Wokingham
Does my right hon. Friend agree that President Biden decided unilaterally to withdraw without agreeing and negotiating a plan with either the Afghan Government or the NATO allies, and that the response of the UK Government in the circumstances has been fast, purposeful and extremely well guided to protect the interests of UK citizens?
Theresa May Conservative, Maidenhead
What President Biden has done is to uphold a decision made by President Trump. It was a unilateral decision of President Trump to do a deal with the Taliban that led to this withdrawal.
What we have seen from the scenes in Afghanistan is that it has not been all right on the night. There are many in Afghanistan who not only fear that their lives will be irrevocably changed for the worse, but fear for their lives. Numbered among them will be womenâwomen who embraced freedom and the right to education, to work and to participate in the political process.
My right hon. Friend the Prime Minister was right to make the education of girls a key aim of his Administration, but in Afghanistan that will now be swept away. Those girls who have been educated will have no opportunity to use that education. The Taliban proclaims that women will be allowed to work and girls will be allowed to go to school, but this will be under Islamic lawâor rather, under its interpretation of Islamic law, and we have seen before what that means for the lives of women and girls.
August 19, 2021
Sir John – How do we in the UK create a Parliament and a Government with members that like you that have the interest and well being of the UK as their central aim and purpose.
Keep up the good work on our behalf
August 19, 2021
Thanks Tess.
August 19, 2021
all I hear from real people in the real world, from all parts of the political spectrum, is fury at the political class for making the out of control immigration situation even worse by accepting large numbers of people.
everything else is a side issue.
I think something is going to happen, I cannot see how the massive difference of opinion between the country and our leaders on immigration can continue like this.
August 19, 2021
We have May deflecting blame on to Trump. Ridiculous given that the Doha Agreement required the Taliban to negotiate a settlement pre-departure of US troops. I’d say this is unlikely to have happened under Trump. He might have U turned but this would have salvaged the situation. Instead we have Mr Nicey-nicey Biden actually damaging womens’ rights which he vowed to protect. Call him out on that!
This is where your party has a problem. People like May spinning half-truths. We need to get back to straightforward common sensse in the Conservative Party.
August 19, 2021
S JS, +1
August 20, 2021
SJS +1
August 19, 2021
+1
August 19, 2021
Afghanistan is another country you all messed up. Do not insult us asking anymore questions about it. I want to know when you vile toads are going to let the poor travel abroad without quarantine.
August 19, 2021
Forbes
âAfter a few days of relative calm, the Taliban is now warning people who do not have the legal right to travel to leave the Kabul airport, adding that âwe donât want to hurt anyone at the airport.â
So far the two regimes are equal.
August 19, 2021
and some we’d hope will not return.
August 19, 2021
We donât want to hear any more from May, in this case wittering on about womenâs rights.
President Trump was right to decide to quit Afghanistan. However, Biden simply failed to organise that in a competent manner.
Bidenâs blame-shifting will not wash.
August 19, 2021
Biden (and Trump) are side issues. This was Bush / Blair’s stupid war. Biden (and Trump) were left to pick up the pieces. (Biden could have done better – but its really about Bush / Blair).
August 19, 2021
Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut has summarized the situation:
“The complete, utter failure of the Afghan national army, absent our hand-holding, to defend their country is a blistering indictment of a failed 20-year strategy predicated on the belief that billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars could create an effective democratic central government in a nation that has never had one.”
$1 trillion over 20 years; USA trained and equipped … over 300,000 Afghan forces.
How many U.S. generals knew what was going on but declined to risk their careers by telling Congress or the country that the Afghan army and regime we had stood up would likely collapse like a house of cards once the Americans departed and they had to face the Taliban alone?
Pat Buchanan. 13 August 2021
August 19, 2021
+1
I think that on balance, with gritted teeth, surprisingly I do very slightly prefer Johnson.
Or maybe detest less is more correct.
August 19, 2021
Absolutely right.
August 19, 2021
Peter, +1, you’re right, May’s voice is of no concern
August 19, 2021
From todays Telegraph
Parliament holds Joe Biden in contempt over Afghanistan
MPs and peers unite to condemn âdishonourâ of US presidentâs withdrawal and his criticism of Afghan troops left behind to face Taliban.
Yet what have this shower of MP’s, Peers and Government done to carry out their duty to keep the UK safe and secure – Nothing, this headline sums up the problem, action needed so lets take a pop at someone else for putting their Country First. What an imponent crowd of numpties that want blame others for their own ineptitude.
August 19, 2021
+1
August 19, 2021
Exactly. All those boat people aren’t brain surgeons and the Government does not know their intentions. How many deported this year Sir John?
August 19, 2021
Are we going through a period reminiscent of the 1930âs? Are we going to again watch countries being pulled down one by one by assorted tyrants? Do we have a Churchill? Or do we have in Boris a Neville Chamberlain ready to wave in the air a piece of paper from the Taliban and others?
August 20, 2021
Neither.You have a collapsing west as surely as at the end of the western Roman Empire.There’s no-one out there to rescue you.Prepare for the new New World Order.
August 19, 2021
Trump wanted to withdraw from Afghanistan but only after meetings between the USA,the Afghan government,the U.K. and the Taliban to agree on the terms but Biden just pulled the rug from all without any discussions whatsoever so Trump canât be blamed.I suggest May checks full facts before mentioning Trump.
August 19, 2021
I do not understand why external countries (like the UK) are obsessed with formal education for girls in Afghanistan (and other foreign countries)
August 19, 2021
Its wrong to lay the failure of the UK Parliament and Government at the door of another Country.
The UK Government and Parliament are entrusted with ensuring the safety and security of the UK. Yes the UK has allies and friends but they are not the primary source of our protection – we didn’t vote for them, we voted our own MP’s and Government for that job
August 19, 2021
This Government cannot even fix illegal boat arrivals never mind Afghanistan, the book Noddy in Toytown comes to mind.
US/UK/NATO had 20 years to work on a decent exit plan, result –> abject failure. Blame game merry go around will go on and on.
Anyhow, it’s a clear directive to stay out of foreign wars [verus the 450 wasted military lives and many more with life changing injury and trama] – what a fabulous advert for MOD recruitment/retention and morale.
One despairs.
August 19, 2021
We may have left the country to an uncertain future but the same can be said towards its neighbouring countries, the women to a hard discipline under their religious laws and left the Taliban with an army & police some 300,000+ strong with modern weapons and ammoâŠ.We must be honest; muslims and islamic countries are never going to be friendly towards the west until thereâs an âIslamic Reformismâ
August 19, 2021
‘Islamic Reformism’
– It’s on the cards. But so many politicians are so caught up in the moment as opposed to thinking and digging deep that they don’t see this.
August 19, 2021
Remember how Communism suddenly collapsed. Look at how Catholicism has collapsed relatively-speaking in Ireland. Islam will collapse too in a similar manner – as so much of it is largely about following traditions as opposed to really believing in it. And the more the young want what we have in the West, the quicker Islam will fall. But we have to play things right. And not give the extremists the oxygen they need to exist.
(I predict that eventually Islam will collapse quite quickly in some parts / many parts of the world to be replaced by a Western form of Capitalism. And some / many of those with genuine Muslim faith will convert to Christianity. As long as we in the West don’t help to stoke up Islamic terrorism).
August 19, 2021
good words
August 20, 2021
Wishful thinking…
August 20, 2021
‘Wishful thinking⊒
– Not it’s not!
Communism collapsed in Europe quite suddenly. It was, relatively-speaking, a big surprise. Have hope.
August 20, 2021
It has been tried at a national and European level with very little mainstream progress to date.
One problem is that the reformers’ lives are in constant danger from the obscurantists.
August 20, 2021
Ataturk achieved it for Turkey but that has been largely reversed now.
August 20, 2021
Look at the circumstances in which Ataturk achieved it-a long,sustained period of imperial decay and political dysfunction,defeat in WWI,imminent partition not just of the wider empire but of what is now Turkey itself (with greater Armenia and Kurdistan potentially to be hived off) and an invading Greek force seeking control of western Anatolia.Lenin came to his rescue,seeing him as a fellow secularist and anti-imperialist at a time when the nascent Soviet state was itself fighting off invading interventionists.
August 21, 2021
I visited Turkey a few years ago and it has not been reversed, at least in the Western part of Turkey- hardly any women wore a head scarf and none wore a veil, even at the local cemetery and even in the non-tourist areas. Erdogan is cunning and it suits him to claim he is Islamising the country and it suits his opposition to claim so too. In reality he is hardly Islamising Turkey but is locking up hostile journalists and (partly) suppressing the political opposition (much like Putin).
With some hindsight what the West really should have done in Afghanistan is imposed some real secularist like Ataturk to ‘reform’, to Westernise the country and ‘reform’ Islam practically out of existence, as Ataturk did. Replacing fanatical Islamists with rather less fanatical Islamists failed and probably failed because it failed to inspire many Afghans with a real alternative to traditionalist Islam worth believing in.
August 20, 2021
Islam has no central authority to initiate reform-it’s not like the Papacy.
August 20, 2021
Indeed – and there is already evidence that reformists simply end up founding a sect, akin to say, the Sufis and the Ahmadiyya, with little effect on the conservatives.
There is no central authority, but paradoxically neither is the religion democratised.
August 19, 2021
+1
August 19, 2021
Mrs Mayâs pop at Donald Trump was disingenuous, ill-informed and uncalled for. Yes, President Trump had decided to withdraw, 20 years upholding the peace 7000 miles from home is enough for anyone, but had yet to agree an exit plan and would certainly have consulted UK and maybe other allies. Biden acted unilaterally, she knows that but is still a bitter woman over Brexit and her fall from power so chose to pass the blame onto Trump. Unforgivable.
August 19, 2021
MP,
A bitter woman indeed, but still hanging around in a similar way to Mr.Heath.
August 19, 2021
For T. May to say “What President Biden has done is to uphold a decision made by President Trump.” betrays her weak understanding of the fundamentals of the situation. The same happened with Brexit during her wretched premiership of course.
She can be likened to a grandstanding clown. In making your intervention, commendable though it was in trying to enlighten, you presumably decided to suspend upholding the wisdom articulated in the Spanish proverb “He who washes the head of an ass wastes both his time and his soap”.
August 19, 2021
If the boundary changes go ahead as outlined/planned, Mrs May will be living in JR’s Constituency, unless she moves house.
Thus JR will actually be representing her in Parliament as her constituency MP. !
Such is the way of the World. !
Reply Not true
August 19, 2021
Reply – Reply
I thought the proposed boundary changes outlined had included the area where she lives JR.
Is that not the case then.?
Reply No, that goes into a new Woodley/Earley seat, not Wokingham.
August 19, 2021
What May said is more-a-less correct in the big picture. But May, Trump, Biden are all irrelevant in big picture. This stupid war was the making of Bush / Blair. History is now catching up with that. That’s all.
August 19, 2021
Mrs May has got nothing to say on any subject that interests me. She is just yet another untrustworthy politician with no real moral fibre.
August 19, 2021
I believe Mrs May has long been a very good constituency MP. I’ve heard this from numerous people who were not politically motivated. However, that is probably her limit.
Still, there’s nothing wrong with being a good constituency MP. We probably need more like that in certain places.
August 19, 2021
Perhaps she is, but she is certainly not a Conservative. Essentially a Libdim, dishonest and in my view her behaviour after the Brexit vote was pure treachery. Brexit means Brexit (in name only) was her dishonest slogan. She is surely the main reason that Northern Ireland were essentially betrayed by Boris. She left such an appalling mess behind her.
August 20, 2021
Johnson (and Frost) are the main reason for the current situation in Northern Ireland. The current situation is Johnson’s “oven ready deal”.
Whatever May is, a liberal she certainly is not, however she did understand that Brexit required making compromises, something that some on here (and elsewhere) still seem to fail to understand.
August 21, 2021
It is comical, the reaction when Johnny Foreigner appears not to Know His Place.
August 20, 2021
Pity she doesn’t stick to surgery business and visiting the local shops with platitudes.
August 19, 2021
Fedupsoutherner, Lifelogic, Re. May, +1 I couldn’t stand the sight of her or the sound of her voice on TV, and Johnson has similar capability for aversion therapy.
August 19, 2021
Theresa May is a bitter woman and dislikes Boris intensely so her reply is no surprise and avoids the real issue that Biden is tired old man who got the timing badly wrong. As for Tobias he will say nothing of relevance on a lot of topics as I imagine he likes the sound of his own voice.
In your main piece Sir John, you were absolutely right that there were hardly any suggestions on how to move forward in an effort to improve a very serious situation. The Opposition offered nothing and based most of their comment on 20:20 hindsight as usual. Nandy’s rant was appalling and she said nothing that was remotely useful.
As for the criticism of the Foreign Secretary that is plain childish. Why do we have junior ministers? Because there is a lot of work and at times the ground has to covered quickly and the boss does not have to make all the phone calls
August 19, 2021
40 years hence girls won’t have any rights here either.
August 19, 2021
Could well be so. We saw in the Batley and Spen bye-election the appalling & shameful silence of the main candidates over that poor teacher abandoned for merely doing his job. Particularly the dire new Labour MP who unfortunately won.
August 19, 2021
I disagree – in 20 years boys will have few rights here, and girls will learn to live mostly without men, and boys/men will have to live without girls. A very me, me , me ‘I don’t need you’ society.
At least I won’t be around to mourn life as it was for my 3 grandsons.
August 19, 2021
40 years hence girls wonât have any rights here either.
Men don’t have any now.
August 20, 2021
I have no doubt that Sharia Law (The Muslim Arbitration Tribunal (an appeasement name to hide its real operation)) is alive & well and freely practised in parts of the UKâŠ.today in the UK women and girls are persecuted under a foreign religious law
August 21, 2021
The rulings of sharia courts carry no legal force in the UK.
However, I do not doubt that they carry great social force within their communities, and that their rulings and pronouncements can for that reason amount to Undue Influence.
There’s nothing more to be done to prevent them than there is to stop e.g. golf clubs or other voluntary associations from making their own rules though.
August 19, 2021
Gosh!
Surely not!
I thought Mrs M was a great friend of that particular code of practice ( women and girls last etc.).
She never stopped banging on and on, extolling its virtues.
Especially after certain unfortunate incidents.
August 19, 2021
If Mrs. May is so worried about the lives and education of girls under Islamic law why is she so keen on importing into the UK the very people who want to bring about Islamic law to our country by signing the UK up to the UN Global Compact for (Regular) Migration.
An action which was not even sanctioned by Parliament, let alone the people of the UK.
August 19, 2021
+1. She is a very dim virtue-signalling LibDim on this on the EU and on the net zero lunacy.
August 19, 2021
Actually, the Afghanistan situation reminds me of the peculiar behaviour of our Border Farce.
And of our so-called Parliament.
In the face of outrage and danger they shrug their shoulders and turn away.
They pass by on the other side of the road.
August 19, 2021
She was a bit of an apologist for Biden – speaking tour of America perhaps?
August 19, 2021
Typical of the appalling Theresa May to try to blame Trump for this appalling failure by the pathetic leader of the free world Biden. He has been the president since January. It was under Biden that this appallingly botched withdrawal had been conducted. Biden assured us the Taliban would not take over. Biden could have changed the agenda, delayed the withdrawal or taken any other actions he thought sensible. He chose not to. To blame Trump is idiotic Theresa.
Biden’s speech the other day was equally pathetic.
August 19, 2021
Also appallingly mawkish speech by an ex soldier MP in Parliament today.
Couldnât bear to listen to it all but it sounded like a passionate eulogy to globalism.
Afghanistan as yet another means of sellotaping the unwilling nations of the world together in lockstep?
Did covid not get us shoulder to shoulder enough then?
Just wait for climate alarm then.
Johnson used the word illusion yesterday. Very apt.
From the Mock Turtleâs Song Lewis Carroll
âŠâThey are waiting on the shingleâwill you come and join the dance?
Will you, won’t you, will you, won’t you, will you join the dance?
Will you, won’t you, will you, won’t you, won’t you join the dance?â
August 19, 2021
Neither Trump nor Biden are the pathetic ones here. But Bush / Blair for getting us into this stupid war.
Trump, Biden, May, The Foreign Secretary, Boris – are largely irrelevant. They can’t reverse what Bush / Blair did – and 20 years of a stupid war in Afghanistan.
History will focus on Bush / Blair.
August 19, 2021
Sir John,
A valiant effort but unfortunately Theresa May seems to have learnt nothing from her time as Prime Minister and in the two years since.
Her default position is to blame Trump. Difficult to do as Biden began his presidency on day one by signing executive orders reversing everything Trump achieved.
August 19, 2021
Trump and Biden haven’t done anything wrong in the big picture here.
The big picture is that Bush / Blair started this stupid war. And dumped it on others to deal with.
Blame Bush / Blair – not Trump / Biden.
August 20, 2021
I don’t blame Biden for the war, even though he was in senior US politics at the time and continued it under Obama, but blame for this collossal cock up is rightfully laid at his feet.
August 20, 2021
‘collossal cock up’
– I’m no fan of Biden or the Democrat Party.
But whether this was a ‘cock up’ or not (and far too early to suggest it was a ‘collossal’ cock-up), the real ‘cock-up’ was starting the war in the first place – many, many, many times worse than anything Biden has done (or not done). And that massive ‘cock-up’ hasn’t been acknowledged yet properly by the political community, in particular here in the UK (I’m far more interested in what goes on here in the UK than in the USA).
August 19, 2021
Mrs May is wrong, as might be expected, about Mr Trump. His planned withdraw agreement with the Taliban was based on the requirement that they would not engage in hostilities against the departing U.S. troops and would they would refuse access to al Qaeda as it had no place in Afghanistan.
Clearly, by May 2021 that “agreement” would have failed (under Trump), as the Taliban were back to attacking allied forces during the very month such a withdrawal was to have taken place.
However Mr Trump left the Whitehouse in January so it became within the new President’s power to stop all further withdrawals. He failed to do so and failed to advise his allies of his latest plan.
Had Mr Trump been in power now, I do wonder how the MSM, et al would be reacting to this disaster. As it is, the world will see this as an ignominious defeat for the Americans down to the inadequacies of the DNC Government..
August 19, 2021
The Left keep making excuses for Biden. He didn’t have much trouble reversing Trump’s policies which he wanted to change, but this one seems to be too much for him. He has been in office for 7 months now, so he could have organised a proper departure rather than trying cram it into a significant date, for reasons of his own. The big cost had already been met in earlier years, so they could have done it slower and they need not have left brand new equipment for the Taliban to plunder. As for running down people who have fought for their country for the last 6 years under NATO guidance and support, saving ours and USA servicemens’ lives, at a cost of 40,000 of their own, he should know better, being a draft dodger himself.
August 19, 2021
‘The Left keep making excuses for Biden’
– To bring ideology into this is immature student politics.
For starters it fails to mention how a socialist, left-wing Labour government took us into Iraq (and how Trump wanted to pull the troops out). Whilst many Tories MPs, and majority of Tory voters, with little doubt, opposed war in Afghanistan.
For the simple reason that there was no clear goal or vision for a reasonably quick victory in Afghanistan. Terrorists can train anywhere in the world (look at the IRA in the hills of Ireland). It was a stupid war, started by politicians with big heads, when they should have focused on defeating terrorism with more highly-trained, specialised soldiers that can be taken anywhere in the world at a moment’s notice to defeat terrorism. That kind of thing. Instead of sending a great big conventional army over a vast, rugged country where foreigners have been defeated time and time again. Madness. Immature. Irresponsible. And the rest.
August 20, 2021
@Ed M – but the Left do keep making excuses for Biden! Was not graham1946 making the wider point, beyond considerations directly concerning Afghanistan, that too many have been giving Biden a free pass in the wake of their relief that he replaced Trump. Had it been Trump who had delivered the grotesque, tragic ineptitude that we witness in the exodus from Afghanistan, there surely would have been howls of outrage from quarters that today remain silent.
August 20, 2021
So yes Trump innocent here. But why so focused on defending Trump anyway? As a politician (not man), he represents the worst, most vulgar aspects of the parvenu / nouveau riche (I am NOT knocking ‘new money’ – I am knocking the worst aspects of it which Trump embodies in politics).
Proper Republicanism (like Conservatism) is NOT vulgar but civilised, urbane. And this is Britain. We’re an old and civilised country with a rich heritage. We don’t need our GREAT country being polluted by the vulgar political approach of Trump.
August 20, 2021
The ‘left’, ‘Trump’, ‘May’ are all irrelevant. (You talk about the ‘left’ – but it was left-wing Blair that sent the British Army into Afghanistan, whilst many if not most Tory voters opposed the Afghanistan War).
What is relevant is that Bush / Blair started the stupid war. Stupid because terrorists can train anywhere. Look at the IRA training in the hills of Ireland. By trying to take over Afghanistan, the terrorists can just go somewhere else to train. The world is huge. Afghanistan is huge. Even with loads of American troops in Afghanistan terrorists could still easily train there if they wanted to (the country is huge and rugged).
Instead of sending in big, conventional armies, the West has to deploy small units of highly-trained, specialised anti-terrorism soldiers. Something like that. It’s not rocket science. Just repeating the kind of thing military experts say.
August 20, 2021
I see you give n credit to the Afghan Army who have been doing the fighting since 2014 with the resultant saving of Allied lives and make no criticism of Sleepy Joe, and his stupid idea that they have not fought, but just raking over 20 year old coals that does no good at all. We all know it was an error, made when Dubya was a new President who still thought America was the world’s policeman, and has found that small arms and a determined enemy can defeat the masses of high tech. We know terrorists can operate anywhere, they do so here and attack our civilian population. Formula57 is correct, the left do keep giving the worst president they’ve had (proved in only 7 months) a free pass which they would never do to Trump.
August 20, 2021
‘Left’ – You’re projecting onto the ‘left.’
Can’t we move beyond being obsessed by the ‘left’. This isn’t the 80’s anymore. Surely Conservatism is now confident enough not to see everything in the prism of being anti left instead of being more proactive and positive in being objectively Conservative! Don’t you see the difference!
Conservatives who bang on about the ‘left’ have a negative vision of Conservatism based on not being like the left. But Conservatives who take the ‘left’ in their stride and focus more on a positive vision on the future have a positive vision of Conservatism!
I now understand there are two important types of Tories. The Positives. And the Negatives. The Negatives who bang on about the left. And the positives who have a positive vision of Conservative values and how to make our country GREAT! (In the right, modest spirit of ‘great’ – not an arrogant one).
Lastly, the Afghanistan War was started, here in the UK, by the ‘left’ (Labour). With many of not most Tory voters, I think, opposing the Afghanistan War from the very beginning. So to go on about ‘the left’ here is absurd.
August 19, 2021
Why not hire the many cruise ships now lying idle and use them to ferry the unfortunate Afghanistans to the land of the free?
August 19, 2021
Docking where? and organising transport from where to where?
August 20, 2021
Surely, even our American allies are capable of working this out. It should be obvious even to the dimmest amongst us.
August 20, 2021
well I cannot figure out what port you think they can reach, and be used to receive thousands of refugees. And should ‘the Americans’ provide road transport (!!) through countries or fly over and land not a million miles form this friendly port, perhpas you would enlighten this dimmest?
August 19, 2021
Why not hire the many cruise ships now lying idle and ferry the unfortunate Afghanistens to the land of the free?
August 20, 2021
Remind me which Afghanistan sea port you are using?
August 20, 2021
The big one on the Bohemian west coast, obviously!
August 19, 2021
Exactly. All those boat people aren’t brain surgeons and the Government does not know their intentions. How many deported this year Sir John?Not free for me and other English taxpayers. We just pay for their largesse in 4* Hotels and health, education, housing and public services
August 19, 2021
A typical comment from Globalist Theresa May. President Trump brokered a deal to leave by 1 May 2021. The Taliban agreed and responded stating that if this did not happen there would be consequences. Biden and his cohorts deliberately delayed the withdrawal until 1 September 2021 hence the present situation.
Wake up people. Keep your eyes on the result of the US state of Arizona Election audit. Nothing can stop what is coming, Nothing.
August 19, 2021
But can anyone (you or anyone else) tell what is coming??
August 19, 2021
What is coming? Christ?
August 19, 2021
Meanwhile –
Thousands of homeless Brits living on the streets.
August 19, 2021
OT – but serious question:
Can anyone tell me how scientists differentiate between a fall-off in rate of infection because of a vaccination campaign – and a fall-off because of seasonal change?
Can anyone tell me how scientists differentiate between a rise in infections amongst vaccinated people because of fading effectiveness of multiple different types of vaccination – and a rise in infections because of seasonal change?
August 20, 2021
I fear that the Taliban may have a measure of popular support for their doctrines, otherwise why would the Afghan Government and army have collapsed so rapidly. The Taliban do have a problem: just how backward and poor do they want their country to be? If they kill or chase out everyone with skills and intelligence, who will staff the hospitals, teach children, repair and maintain elevators, air conditioning, motor vehicles etc? I believe that they will want to retain at least some of the skilled and educated people. Therein lies the hope that, over time, Taliban rule will become less barbaric.
August 20, 2021
You are (understandably) attempting to attribute Western logic and ways of thinking to a completely different culture and mindset. A bit like the UN Secretary General who has just told the Eritreans to stop the endless violent civil war in their country – does he really think they will listen?
August 20, 2021
As May is blaming Trump for the situation then shouldnât we blame her for the UK part in it ?
August 20, 2021
Theresa May is just proving to be a light-weight politician because Trump is irrelevant in all this. So is May for that matter (and Biden). The blame for all this lies with Bush / Blair. The day when the troops had to leave was inevitable. It wasn’t going to be pretty whoever was in charge: a Democrat or Republican (or Tory / Labour for that matter – Boris and Foreign Secretary done nothing wrong either – frankly, let the Foreign Secretary enjoy his holiday so he is refreshed and ready for the hard work of his office ahead).
August 20, 2021
And the ‘left’ and ‘right’ are irrelevant too. This is all about Bush / Blair – and the power that went to their heads (or, in Bush’s case, power that went to the heads of those around Bush).
August 20, 2021
I am heartened by the support from local people trying to help the refugees . Can you imagine fleeing from your home , in the clothes you stand up in to avoid slaughter . How can any Country leave these people to the hands of extremist barbarians . I am angry that the world has allowed this to happen .It is not England’s fault, that we lost servicemen trying to protect these people It is not America’s fault. How can anyone blame others for trying to protect people.? Doesn’t any one remember the horrific executions we saw filmed many years ago and since then continual indiscriminate murder? How would you feel if your homeland and relatives were being slaughtered in the name of a religion? This religious perception is the most cruel of all and one wonders what is going to become of Afghanistan with a people who still stones women when they will not submit to a sects view of gods will.
August 20, 2021
It is NOT indiscriminate murder. The view of Islam supported by these extremists is that infidels should not live. You live by their command or die.
August 20, 2021
Quite , I stand corrected
August 20, 2021
May is despicable.
She continues to deceive just as she did while in office as PM.
While it is true Trump started the negotiations with the Taliban, his plan was never to suddenly withdraw.
The screwup is all in Biden’s court.
You have to ask why she is so keen to defend this most pathetic pseudo-president?
August 20, 2021
Good intervention from you, poor debate, hardly any MPs seem to have the interest of the British people at heart anymore.
Yes, as a woman, I feel dreadful about what is happening in Afghanistan but this is all down to Biden, he pulled the rug from under our feet.
August 20, 2021
Very clear headed and correct, the questions from Sir John.
I thought this speech form Lord Lilley in the Lords was good too:
2.45pm
Lord Lilley
(Con) [V]
My Lords, after hubris comes nemesis. Let us not dwell on the nemesisâthe humiliation visited on America and her alliesâbut identify the hubris that led to it. It was right and inevitable that America, following the twin towers atrocity visited on that great country, should take punitive action against the perpetrators. That meant demanding that the state that had harboured al-Qaeda hand over its leaders, eradicate its bases and expel its supporters. Failing which, the US was perfectly entitled to enforce its demands from the air or with boots on the ground. But, as the noble Lord, Lord West of Spithead, said, that being done, it should have left. The hubris was to imagine that the US or NATO had the power or the right to transform the character and culture of a distant nationâsomething neither the British Empire at its zenith nor the Soviet Union with all its ruthlessness could achieve.
What is the moral of this tale? It is that morality depends on recognising reality. We have no obligation to attempt what we do not have the power to achieve. As Enoch Powell once put it, in the form of an equation, power equals force divided by distance multiplied by will. What we have the power to enforce in our own neighbourhood we may not have the power to attain where we cannot deploy force, or where any forces are tenuated by lengthy supply lines. Where we can exert force, we will have the will to exercise it effectively only if it is clearly in the interestsâmoral as well as materialâof our own nation, as otherwise it will not be sustainable.
The hubristic belief that we can exercise military power we do not possess is matched by and often rooted in an illusion that we have a moral authority and moral obligations on a global scale. There is not a problem in the farthest corner of the globe that we do not demand Ministers take responsibility for; there is not an issue, from global warming to migration, biodiversity and global poverty, on which we do not Toggle showing location ofColumn 526imagine that the rest of the world is hanging on our actions to follow our example. How strange that, despite the loss of empire, liberal imperialism has flourished and grownânot least in this House and on the Opposition Benches.
I do not advocate that we retreat within our own carapace in these islands, and still less that we abandon genuine moral responsibilities, but we must recognise that our obligations extend no further than our power to fulfil them. We should do the right thing because it is the right thing to do, not because we vainly imagine we are leading the world.
August 20, 2021
It is not vain to think , as most in the world probably do, that it is acceptable to slaughter their families and children. It has nothing to do with Imperialism , that is an excuse for not doing anything. However collective humane care is the key to these problems. Put yourself in a near position and watch the suffering and atrocities and say to them. I am sorry I don’t have moral authority.
August 20, 2021
not acceptable
August 21, 2021
As I recall, in the House of Commons when PM Mrs May made it perfectly clear that there was only one woman whose survival interested her. When that woman was forced to resign, Mrs May wept, showing a most proper sense of humanitarian sympathy.
August 24, 2021
Can you imagine being banished from the country you were born in because of an extreme religion.