On Saturday Afghanistan: What just happened?!

SO gangs of armed fighters in pick-ups turn up and take over an entire country in a fortnight. How did that happen?

Like you dear reader, I have no idea. There surely isn’t a person in the whole of the South West who could accurately explain what has just unfolded in Afghanistan. If the combined might of the US, NATO and British intelligence services were taken completely by surprise, how could any individual begin to understand what just happened?

As usual, we live in the dark. In normal times we just quietly accept that fact, while pretending we are experts on even the most complex of political situations. We individuals have opinions – sometimes strong opinions – about the big issues, and that is fine because we are not expected to take any kind of action. Brexit, for example, turned half the population into world-trade experts, but not even the world’s top economists could have foreseen all the ramifications. How many, for example, predicted UK job vacancies would hit one million or that thousands of restaurants and other businesses would reduce hours because of a lack of staff?

But the bottom line has always been that when big situations have developed on the world-stage, we voters have been reasonably happy and more-or-less confident to leave it to the experts in so-called “corridors of power”. Now, though, the Afghani situation is a blow to what could be called consumer confidence in those Whitehall passageways of might and wisdom. Because that’s twice in a row...

When Covid hit, governments around the world were caught unawares – even though specialists had for years been warning we were long overdue a new and devastating pandemic. As death rates climbed, we were locked in our homes thinking: how can it be that a few microbes from bat droppings in a Chinese market have taken the entire planet’s medical expertise by surprise?

Cynics thought: “Oh yeah... That would be all the cutbacks. Cut taxes, cut public spending – and we’ll all live happily ever after. Not!”

All these months later we can only pray we are better prepared next time, because virologist after virologist has been declaring Covid was just a warm-up exercise.

It was our good fortune the likes of Oxford University had, for over 20 years, been working on a vaccine which could be used in the fight against coronaviruses. That research was nothing to do with any politician, no matter what they might claim. And right now those politicians are busy not claiming anything whatsoever when it comes to Afghanistan. Which is shameful in so many ways. At this point some readers will be snorting: “Uh-ho, here he goes again – having a go at the Government. What’s Afghanistan to do with us anyway? We’ve got enough to worry about at home without troubling ourselves over a war-torn country thousands of miles away.”

And I’ll admit that, given the present situation, it’s hard to know what can be done. Having said that, I do wonder what happened to the oncepowerful voice of “British influence”? I wasn’t a fan, but I can’t imagine Margaret Thatcher allowing the present tragedy to occur on her watch. She’d have been on the phone to President Reagan. “Look, Ronnie... We can’t throw all those nice people who’ve been helping us to the wolves. It will not look at all good – and, anyway, it’s not what we British call ‘cricket’. Far better to have a staged and managed withdrawal taking some of our friends with us. No need to be too generous, of course, but as long as we are seen to be doing the right thing.”

Over the past week there’s been no attempt at any kind of face-saving exercise. They didn’t even pick up a phone. Not for the first time in the past couple of years, we’ve found ourselves wondering who, if anyone, is at the tiller. Certainly, we have not been seen doing the right thing. Those terrified Afghan interpreters and the like who helped our forces over two decades come across as truly decent people when you see them interviewed – yet it’s all too clear for the world to see how the British seem to have ignored them in their hour of need.

It’s all very well saying these events are a long way from the Westcountry, but I’ll tell you what isn’t. For two decades, I was senior feature writer for this newspaper which meant I was the one who went to interview the mums and dads of British soldiers who were killed in Afghanistan. Always at their request, I hasten to add. It was they who wanted the world to know about the sacrifice their sons had made. Needless to say, those interviews were heartwrenching experiences. One took place in a tiny council flat, another in a grand country house. Whatever the location, whatever the background, the tears and the agonies were the same. I have been thinking a lot about those mums and dads this week. For them, Afghanistan is never a distant place, it’s right there wedged in their hearts. And when it comes to the idea of fairness and to those who served our flag and therefore our way of life, it shouldn’t be a distant place for any of us either.

I can’t imagine Margaret Thatcher allowing the tragedy to occur on her watch