Taxpayers are entitled to an explanation

I HAVE been very interested in the unfolding events in Afghanistan, the lightning takeover, and the evacuation of people under threat from the Taliban.

There have been some shocking scenes and heartrending interviews with those people whose loved ones gave their lives to ensure this ruthless Islamist regime never returned to power. There are two fundamental questions that need answers.

First, accepting that President Biden continued to pull the Trump rug, how on earth did our Intelligence Service get it so badly wrong as to be unaware that the Afghan army, trained at enormous tax-payers expense, would just surrender to any invading Taliban force?

There have been no battles to take over the country apart from the very occasional skirmish with little loss of life.

It was nothing else but abject surrender and also suggests that there must have been a considerable number of enemy supporters embedded in the country.

Secondly, the British tax-payers have made very costly contributions to both training and equipping Afghan Forces, let alone endeavouring to keep the peace and protect the supposedly vast majority of the population against radical Islamism.

During the last 20 years a semblance of calm has been maintained, but at a cost in terms of both lives and hard cash.

If all reports are correct, the tribal leaders handed over their fiefdoms without a shot being fired, surrendering all their hardware to the invading force.

Now there are reports that the Afghan army had not been paid for many months and that this was a factor in the roll-over.

In which case, where has all the money gone, for the country’s economy was propped up by cash from outside?

It must also be asked if we trained the right leaders. The fact the Afghan president, Ashraf Ghani, skipped for the hills was not a good example for his officers, and sealed the fate of his country.

British tax-payers are entitled to some explanations, and a resignation or two might be very appropriate for such a catastrophic mess.

Russell Luckock is chairman of Birmingham pressings firm

AE Harris