We failed in Afghanistan admits Wallace
THE Defence Secretary has admitted the 20-year military campaign in Afghanistan – which cost hundreds of British troops lives – was a failure.
A year after the Taliban swept back into power, Ben Wallace said he feared grieving parents would wonder: ‘What was it all for?’
Monday marks the anniversary of the Islamic militants retaking Kabul, sparking a fortnight that saw Western troops pack up and leave. In an exclusive interview, Mr Wallace described his feelings as everything UK troops had fought and died for ‘crumbled before our eyes’.
He also revealed how visiting a war memorial made him fear families of the 457 personnel killed would think their sons and daughters gave their lives for nothing.
Mr Wallace spoke to the Daily Mail to mark the first anniversary of Operation Pitting, the UK’s largest evacuation effort since the Second World War.
More than 1,000 personnel were involved in the rescue of UK nationals and locals after the Taliban swept aside Western-trained Afghan forces with ease.
Mr Wallace, a father of three, was enjoying an opportunity to spend time with his 11-year-old son when they saw a memorial to Guardsman Michael Sweeney, 19, in Blyth, Northumberland.
Mr Wallace said: ‘It was a rare evening off and we had been working all hours. I wasn’t getting to see much of my family. But my son and I went for a walk and saw Guardsman Sweeney’s war memorial. He was the only soldier from Blyth killed in Afghanistan. I looked at the picture of him and I looked at my son.
‘Then it occurred to me – this young man had died for the very event that was collapsing before our eyes. And I thought about his mother and father who’d lost a teenage son, and experienced such loss. And what was it all for?
‘I worried that was the question the families of fallen troops would ask themselves. I worried they’d think it was for nothing.
‘We’d gone there for the right reasons and stayed for 20 years, but we’d failed.
‘And history told us when the West left the country, it was going to go back to how it had been. We were leaving people behind, conceding the country to the Taliban, mainly because the West didn’t really want to stay. And if they didn’t want to stay, why did they go there at all?’
Asked why he felt it so personally, Mr Wallace, a former Scots Guards officer, said: ‘Because I’m a soldier. Because it is sad and the West has done what it’s done. We have to do our best to get people out and stand by our obligations.’
He added: ‘I am proud of the Afghan relocation scheme. More people are arriving here every week. We stood by our word and got people out. On my watch, we did our very best.’
‘On my watch, we did our very best’