Afghanistan

The decision of  the  USA's President Biden  to quit Afghanistan by 31st August 2021, apparently taken without prior consultation with  Boris Johnson, other European leaders or even NATO was to put it at its meekest, very sad.

The UK media though, including the BBC and  even The Times newspaper, has spent days complaining that Dominic Raab the UK Foreign Secretary, did not telephone his counterpart in Kabul the day before that city was retaken by the Taliban. 

Distressing in my view, to find that domestic media concentrates so much effort on a domestic political issue when thousands of children women and men were having to fight for their safety if not lives. No one could have predicted that the Afghan army would fade away so quickly thus enabling Kabul to be taken in a few days rather than the weeks that had been predicted. Dominic Raab's failure to telephone Afghanistan is irrelevant. What would it have achieved anyway? Would the Taliban have held back for example? There are also complaints in Europe that three members of the relevant EU committee  were also on holiday at the time and only returned later. I have no love for EU bureaucrats but such criticisms of them are also quite misguided and irrelevant.

The BBC tends to complain about Boris Johnson's government at any opportunity but the Times sadly is becoming more like the Daily Mail in some of its recent reporting, almost supporting Mail stories.

The failure by President Biden to consult with or at least telephone, his allies before making his decision that would affect so many innocent people as well as the allies, was in my humble opinion, dreadful. 

If the withdrawal date of 31st August is adhered to by the USA, then many more innocent children, women and men in Afghanistan,  will have to bear the consequences, which may be disastrous for them.

The UK army has too few resources in Kabul to be able to stand alone there; the EU has no European army and NATO is USA led so it appears that the last UK flight out of Afghanistan will have to leave as early as this Tuesday. There would I gather, be difficulties about bringing out British Troops if  the final flight was delayed beyond that date, ie 24th August 2021.

My understanding is that the original entry by Western armies arose because twenty years  ago, ISIS which  had a large presence there, initiated the attacks on NY's twin towers and the Pentagon in Washington D.C. on September 11th (9/11).  Many died in those attacks including McKenzie, a colleague from my class at Beaumont.

President Biden could without losing face (which anyway is far less important than the loss of life) at least extend his deadline to 11th September 2021.