Mothers right to call for action over Afghanistan failure

LITTLE wonder the scenes in Afghanistan are causing fury among the mums of soldiers who lost their lives in the conflict.

They were told the US-led war was about stopping the Taliban, but President Biden’s withdrawal is allowing these extremists to take over again.

In a letter to Boris Johnson, the mums rightly ask the key question at the heart of this outrage – what was the point of their sons being sent to war in the first place?

The terrible scenes playing out in Afghanistan, and the horrors that await women and girls, are an indictment of a failed invasion lasting 20 years.

Nearly 500 British lives were lost in this conflict and it is hard to pinpoint what, if anything, was achieved.

These brave mothers are right to say troops were sent there on a “bed of lies” and a public inquiry must take place as a matter of urgency.

Any investigation should go back to the original decision of allied forces entering Afghanistan – an invasion that lasted three times longer than the World War II.

In the wake of 9/11, it was understandable for the US to want to challenge regimes that were harbouring Osama Bin Laden and his terror network.

The Taliban provided a safe haven for terrorists and tough action was necessary to confront this evil.

However, history teaches us that while invading a country is the easy part, leaving is more difficult.

To this day – and this is the point made by the grieving mothers – it is not clear what the overall aim was of the Afghanistan policy.

Defeating the Taliban and helping the county become a stable democracy? Failed.

Promoting greater stability in an unstable region? Another fail.

Equipping ordinary Afghans to govern themselves? The Taliban’s speedy takeover shows this has also failed.

As the mums said in their letter: “It’s a double heartbreak for us to be back where we started 20 years on.”

If the invasion of Afghanistan was a disaster, then the manner of our exit is 10 times worse.

Biden claims withdrawal will not be a humiliation like Vietnam but our TV screens tell a different story. The Taliban is on course for a rout and the president is facing his first crisis in the job.

The US and UK have a duty to help the people who are fleeing this carnage.

If a country creates a refugee crisis, the same nation must help sort it out.

The UK has already held a public inquiry into the criminal disaster of the Iraq War.

The time has come for this to be repeated for Afghanistan.