We were given conclusive proof this week that our foreign policy since 2001 has been totally misguided. An ugly row has erupted within NATO with regard to the troops being sent to Afghanistan.The Germans have been singled out by Washington as not doing enough by sending too few troops and then deploying them in safe(?)zones.
The question is,why are in this position?If we accept that it is vital that the Taliban have to be defeated, then we have to accept that the Neo Cons have screwed up on a massive scale.After 9/11 they quite rightly inavded Afghanistan and toppled the Taliban.There was no argument about that. The terrorists who attacked New York were based in Afghanistan, aided and abetted by the Taliban.The international community agreed that overthrowing them was a priority.
What became clear was that Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld really had their minds set on Iraq.So they forgot about Afghanistan.It became the forgotten war, with too few troops with not enough equipment. The Taliban/Al Qaeda were never totally defeated, they just ran away into mountains.Like any good insurgents, they ran away to fight another day-hey, that's guerilla war,baby.
Now here we are in 2008, still trying to get more troops to fight an insurgency that should have been given full focus in 2001.Instead, our Prime Minister at the time,Tony Blair took this country into a bullshit war in Iraq against a country that never attacked or threatened us.He was so keen to sit on Bush's lap, he failed to see Britain's objective should have been defeating the Taliban.
Now we have US Defence Secretary Bob Gates virtually accusing the Germans of being pussies,because the brain boxes in Washington made a strategic blunder of cosmic proportions when they invaded Iraq. That's up there with Hitler's decision to invade Russia instead of failing to finish off Britain in 1941.
We must be under no illusion.Afghanistan cannot be allowed to fall back into the hands of the Taliban.
