Due to other commitments recently, including various by-elections and work commitments, I have had less time to consider blog posts. This topic, however, is one I wanted to write about as soon as I heard it on the news, my primary political interests being in Foreign Affairs. If there is one country that has grabbed newspaper headlines for 200 years regarding foreign policy then it is Afghanistan, the ultimate "angry-cats-in-a-sack" country, that western nations have been getting themselves stuck in for many years. British Forces are now in the process of withdrawing from Afghanistan, having been there for 13 years, which now makes everyone ask; "Did we achieve what we went there for?" Its time for some achievement assessment.
Multi-national forces, but predominantly American and British forces, went into Afghanistan in 2001 in the wake of the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Centre Twin Towers in New York. The west was set on a monolithic hunt for the terrorist group Al Qaida, who had perpetrated the attack, and its leader Osama Bin Laden. What we must, however, realise, is that taking out those who had harmed us was not the sole purpose of the excursion into Afghanistan; it may have begun as the primary catalyst for invading Afghanistan, but after some time of boots on the ground, it became apparent that our
raison d'etre in in Afghanistan was based more around stabilisation of a region that was controlled by anti-western religious extremists, the Taliban. The best evidence of this is 2011, when US Special Forces made a brief incursion into western Pakistan and assassinated Osama Bin Laden. If our purpose in Afghanistan was to exact justice on Al Qaida and its leadership then 2011 should have marked a point of immediate exit. It did not, and only now in 2014 are we seeing British troops return home.
As stated, our presence in Afghanistan became more about stabilisation and helping facilitate the existence of fair democracy in a country that had been ruled by extremists that did not provide equal rights for women in Afghanistan and murdered any who opposed them. The very nature of the Taliban and the way they operate make them a tough enemy to combat, hence the long, drawn-out, lethargy of 13 years of sending men and women in uniform to fight an elusive foe.
What this now requires is a question to be asked: "Is stability finally entrenched in that country?" We can only presume,
that with a full withdrawal by the end of the year announced by the Prime Minister, that it is "Mission Accomplished" in terms of a stable nation of Afghanistan.
This accomplishment will, however, be measured only by time itself. Many people predict a Taliban resurgence once NATO fully withdraws from the area and if this turns out to be true, we can only hope that the Afghan defence forces are up to the task of defending their newfound democracy. I think this test may be like selling a product (albeit one that has gone through a long R & D stage). If an unaided Afghanistan can withstand Taliban pressures in this new proving/ prototype stage, even if for a first few years, then I suspect it will endure for many years, or at least as long as it can.
