Sir, One cannot but agree with Matthew Parris (Comment, Feb 2) that the British troops in Afghanistan have done what has been possible under the constraint of the present conditions, and should pack up and return home. The war there is being fought in an unbalanced way (report, Feb 2); the US, UK, Canada, the Netherlands and Denmark are bearing the brunt of the war efforts in the south of the country whereas the other leading Nato nations such as Germany, France, Italy and Spain are fighting a passive war under protective caveats.
President Hamid Karzai’s rejection of Lord Ashdown of Norton-sub-Hamdon in his role as a veteran nation-builder and Mr Karzai’s recent unhelpful comments about the British strategy in Helmand province make one wonder about the worthiness of the war, especially in view of the terrible human cost of young British lives.
Historically, Afghanistan has been a warring tribal nation, which fought fiercely against the Greek, Persian, Turkish and Mongol invaders over more than two thousand years. The British have fought three Afghan wars and the memory of the retreat of the Soviet Army after a ruinous and protracted war is still fresh.
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Apart from a common religion, the Afghan society is discordant and non-cohesive. The Talebanic fundamentalism has germinated and flourished amid abject poverty, illiteracy and intellectual stagnation. The country has no natural resources nor any elemental industrial base. The only way forward is for the developed world to have a Marshall Plan towards economic, industrial and social regeneration, similar to that in postwar Europe. Furthermore, UN forces should be deployed to prevent the inflow of armament from the neighbouring countries in order to salvage this failing state.
Sam Banik
London N10
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Sir, May I add the voice of Winston Churchill to the chorus of concern about the sending of less than fully trained soldiers to Afghanistan? His knowledge of the fighting men of that part of the world was gained by campaigning against them on the North-West Frontier, the very region that has been defying the Pakistan Army and recruiting for the Taleban. Memorably sketched in his 1930 autobiography My Early Life, they appear close-up in his book The Story of the Malakand Field Force (1898): “To the ferocity of the Zulu are added the craft of the Redskin and the marksmanship of the Boer . . . All are held in the grip of miserable superstition.” Fearless of offending his superiors, the young Churchill wrote that the Government was wrong to be sending out immature short-service soldiers —– mere “boys of 20 or 21”. They were simply not developed or tough enough for close encounters with muscular tribesmen in their prime. Hand-to-hand fighting may not figure as often as it did then, but one imagines he would make the same point, were he with us still.
Geoffrey Best
Oxford
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Sir, I was horrified to read Anthony Loyd’s account of the Afghan father who has buried three of his children within 100 yards of Kabul’s gleaming new Aid Ministry (Feb 1). Our first reaction is to send money to — well, to whom? If any charities can get help to such families, why have they failed to do so?
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My second reaction is why has none of the UK Government’s aid to Afghanistan prevented such suffering? These scenes are in the centre of Kabul, not some remote valley under Taleban control. We — that is UK taxpayers — have sent £490 million to Afghanistan for reconstruction and development since 2001. So why has a father in the centre of the country’s capital had to scrape “. . . a hole in the ice and mud above a drainage ditch . . .” to bury three of his children?
Chris Robertson
London SE6