The unspeakable truth is that we lost in Iraq. We must not lose in Afghanistan too

5 December 2009

James Forsyth reviews the week in politics

Britain has fought more wars than any other country, but rarely has it suffered two defeats in a row. That humiliation is what this country is currently drifting towards, following failure in Iraq with failure in Afghanistan.

Westminster might be obsessing over the Iraq inquiry’s revelations about how the decision to go to war was made, but the really important part of the inquiry’s work will come when it turns its attention to what happened after the invasion. The painful truth about Iraq, which no politician dares speak, is that Britain was defeated. As David Kilcullen, a Nato counter-insurgency expert whom both Gordon Brown and David Miliband have lavished praise on, has said: ‘In 2006 the British army was defeated in the field in southern Iraq.’ The principal job of the Iraq inquiry should be determining why this happened; everything else can be thrown to the historians.

We already know that while scrambling to leave Iraq, Britain decided to concentrate resources on Afghanistan. The thinking was that Afghanistan was a far less controversial conflict and so keeping troops there would be easier politically. There was also a desire on the part on the British military to prove to the Americans its effectiveness — something that had been thrown into doubt by what had happened in southern Iraq — by taking on one of the most difficult places in Afghanistan: Helmand province.

Worryingly, though, we seem intent on repeating the errors of Iraq in Afghanistan. A decision has been taken to start looking for the exit and, disastrously, the strategy is flowing from that. Brown may have announced an extra 500 troops on Monday, hardly an increase that is likely to make a decisive difference on the ground, but all the spin and pre-briefing was about withdrawal dates. On top of this, the relationship between the Prime Minister and the Defence Secretary is dysfunctional, as is the one between the Defence Secretary and the top brass.

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revolution

December 7th, 2009 12:36pm Report this comment

British terrorists launch attacks on London fron Yorkshire?
This is the truth being ignored by British politicians.
The British army are fighting so called Muslim terrorists in their home countries while hundreds of thousands of people from these countries are allowed to enter the UK as immigrants?
The enemy are already in the UK in large numbers thanks to the open door immigration policy.
There is no evidece of Taliban or Afghan attacks on Western countries.
The 9/11 attackers were Saudi plus one Egyptian who trained to fly the airplanes in USA ask McCain if they trained in
Arizona?
The British army were deafeated in Iraq as were the Americans in Vietnam because of the cowardice of politicians who had never held a gun?
There were no war crimes in Iraq that can be investigated by the corrupt and discredited white mans court called the ICC and unless some judge with balls orders the arrest of the signed up member Tony Blair the UN will remain a bad joke in the third world.

Austin Barry

December 8th, 2009 5:36pm Report this comment

Odd isn't it. Our regular army is fighting the Taliban who represent no apparent threat to the UK, while the seeds of a thuggish Home Guard, the EDL, take on the the domestic Islamist threat.

Ike Jakson

December 20th, 2009 8:24am Report this comment

May I briefly disagree with the writer on Iraq before stating my view on Afghanistan?

Regardless of whether WMD was found in Iraq or not, the “Allied Forces” all believed them to be there when they supported the war and made it a just war to start with. That war, whatever it turned out to be later, was won when they pulled Saddam out of his hole and handed him over to his own people to hang him. The World seems to want to forget that they [his own people] did the hanging because they applauded the Allied Forces at the time.

It was probably a good time to leave Iraq at that point but it did not happen for whatever reason.

Afghanistan is a different story altogether. America and her Allies will lose in Afghan because nobody can win a terrorist war with conventional weapons in Afghan. If the intention is to capture Bin Laden it remains a stupid idiotic war even if they do capture the old rogue, and I don’t think they will capture him.

The World should all withdraw their armed forces from Afghanistan and leave that godforsaken country and the entire region to their own devices. Nothing that is there is worth the life of one single soldier.

Minnie Ovens

January 26th, 2010 7:37pm Report this comment

Pecisely why, Mr Forsyth, do you think it is necessary to attempt to win an unwinnable war in Afghanistan (the reasons have been stated again and again, clearly and precisely, in the message areas in The Spectator and are routinely ignored by The Spectator's so called experts) when we cannot be bothered to fight the war on the real home front?

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