Thinking of Afghanistan
James Forsyth 11:30am
Prince Harry’s brave service in Afghanistan should make us all think more about that country, the forgotten front in the war on terror. As Roger Cohen points out in The New York Times, Europe’s commitment to it has been pitiful. Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, NATO secretary general, concedes that the alliance is 10 percent short of its requirement. While the febrile nature of the political situation is summed up by the fact that, “Zalmay Khalilzad, the Afghan-born U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, has been getting daily calls from Afghan politicians urging him to run for president next year.”
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Christopher White
February 29th, 2008 12:30pmCanada is withdrawing its troops in 2010 or 2011 - the first sign that NATO members that do put troops in the dangerous South will not put up with backsliding from Germany and other countries for ever.
David Lindsay
February 29th, 2008 5:34pmSo, what was Prince Harry doing in Afghanistan? What, exactly, would constitute victory or defeat there? And why, exactly? We merrily grow opium in our own country "for medicinal purposes". We are allied to Islamist smack-smugglers in Kosovo. And the reviled "Taliban" are exactly the same people as the revered "tribal elders", depending on what we happen to think of them at the time. On the same basis, the "Ba'athists" whom we are in the process of "rehabilitating" in Iraq are exactly the same people as the "Sunni insurgents" or the alleged Iraqi branch of that non-existent organisation, "al-Qaeda". Answers, please. Perhaps those of us demanding them should display pictures of Prince Harry to make the point?
mike
February 29th, 2008 6:26pmWe were fighting in Afghanistan 150 years ago. What gives us the right ? Are we always on the side of good ? Perhaps if we had left well alone all those years ago they would have sorted out their own problems. It took civil wars to make this and other countries free not some plonkers from over the sea telling us what to do.