True fight for Afghanistan

From: John Riseley, Harrogate.

TO have legitimacy, the bulk of ground troops opposing the forces of misogyny and oppression in Afghanistan must be Afghan. They need to mobilise those with most invested in this struggle. There can be no entitlement to a life that is free, comfortable and safe while this requires others to fight and die.

So long as even a part of Afghanistan holds out there will be no Afghan refugees in the West, only deserters. If all is lost then those deserving of sanctuary will have fought long and hard to prevent this, they will be few (or they would not have lost) and they will be predominantly women (and not, as now, mostly young men).

If we can compel Afghans to return home, then we can bring them here for military and other training. We should, in particular, provide hand guns and the training to use them so that Afghan women pursuing a career outside of the home are not a soft target for assassins.

Afghanistan should never have been viewed as a chance to showcase democracy or our military capability. It shouldn’t have been used to off-shore our own wars on terrorism and on drugs. The true fight is for the freedoms desired by the people living there.