Our nation’s debt to courageous soldiers like Ben
LAST week, as part of The Mail on Sunday’s excellent campaign to start a 24-hour helpline for traumatised troops, this paper told the story of Lance Bombardier Ben Parkinson.
Now 33, Ben suffered more than 40 blast injuries, including severe brain damage, after his Land Rover hit a Taliban antitank mine in Helmand province, Afghanistan, in 2006. It was a miracle Ben survived. His mum is rightly backing the paper’s campaign as she knows the difference round-the-clock access to help and advice would make for her family.
Last week, I visited Helmand province, close to where Ben was hit, to see for myself the damage these mines can cause and to learn from the brave souls working to destroy them.
Afghanistan seldom makes the news back home, unless it’s to report another bomb attack. Yet it still has more UK soldiers on active overseas deployment than any other country on Earth.
I was privileged to spend a morning with 2nd Battalion The Yorkshire Regiment, who are serving as the British Army’s Quick Reaction Force in the country. Last month, they were deployed during an attack on an international hotel alongside local soldiers and the Oklahoma National Guard. Twenty-two people were killed during the 13-hour siege and 150 either escaped or were rescued.
The biggest NGO working in Afghanistan right now is the Halo Trust, based in Dumfriesshire. Halo has 3,500 people clearing minefields, destroying arms stockpiles and making land safe.
I travelled with Halo officials to see exactly how UK aid money was being spent. I couldn’t have been more impressed.
During my visit, the trust handed back control of 95 million square metres of land in western Afghanistan to the local government, following a ten-year operation to remove landmines and unexploded debris. In all, 600 minefields were cleared.
While I was there, Halo taught me the techniques of mine clearance. It is patient, dangerous, back-breaking work, and much has to be done by hand.
The Afghans I met were brave, disciplined and resilient, putting themselves in harm’s way to rebuild their country after decades of war. From the female Afghan MPs fighting to increase girls’ education to the mine clearers putting their lives on the line, they are helped and supported by UK aid of course, but they are not passive recipients. They want to build Afghanistan back into a safe, stable, agricultural and mercantile nation.
While I respect the right of those who object to Britain spending 0.7 per cent of its budget supporting aid abroad, I politely disagree.
Britain has always shouldered its burden in the world. We have helped to defend those under attack and have fought to liberate the oppressed. But when the fighting stops, we have a duty to stay the course. What would be the meaning of Ben Parkinson’s sacrifice – and the sacrifices of dozens like him – if we simply quit the country when the war fighting is done?
It is also in our own security interests to ensure Afghanistan is a viable state.
As I have seen for myself, British soldiers like Ben and UK aid organisations like the Halo Trust are helping Afghanis build a future for themselves.
We should all be proud of their efforts. But as well as showing that pride, we must ensure that injured servicemen and women get every help and assistance after their brave work is over.
It is why The Mail on Sunday’s helpline campaign must succeed.
As a nation, we owe soldiers like Ben nothing less.