LETTER: Involvement in Afghanistan is a true tale of woe

We should never have been there in the first place.

Yet another tragedy resulting from the actions of those Bush/Blair war lords unfolds in Afghanistan.

The West exits, tail between its legs, after thousands have died. Westernised Afghans either flee to the West or may possibly be decapitated or stoned to death.

Billions of Western dollars have been wasted and jihadis are given hope in their aim to destroy our way of life. The brave forces sent to the front line will now have died in vain, and for what, their families will ask? Of all the countries the West has tried to Westernise, by opening a history book, our leaders would have been reminded of the inpossibility of such a project in Afghanistan.

It is only perhaps a century and a half since the much vaunted British military was annihilated in those bleak Afghan mountains. This was just one of many attempts to invade/ change this land

Surely the American leadership would have learned the lessons of Vietnam and the British from Suez?

Apart from Blair’s intervention in Kosovo, the recent allied use of military power has resulted in far more danger to the West than was previously the case and to the flooding of the millions displaced into Europe. Then of course we had Call me Dave having a go during the much vaunted Arab Spring. That went well.

One might also ask, what has happened to what we British once excelled in, the Intelligence Services? Clearly they do not any longer have their ear close to the ground in foreign fields as once they did

Had the billions spent on the impossible been spent at home to reinforce homeland security, the West would be far more secure. As it is, this disaster will merely give succour to the likes of China, Russia, Iran and any lunatic Moslem extremist organisation

Oh and by the way, before some writer tells me that it’s easy to say this with hindsight, let me tell you I’ve always said this even in those gung ho-flag waving nuke ‘em all days of the early noughties. Even so, at this late date, some benefit might have come from all of this had the reversal been carried out in a planned fashion, but what can you expect when the Western democracies have a leader well past his sell-by date and Britain a leader better suited to stand-up comedy than leading a major nation.

Alan Etheridge, Dudley

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