Last Wednesday saw Parliament return to sit to debate the
situation in Afghanistan.
What has happened in a very short space of time in
Afghanistan is incredibly concerning and raises numerous questions on all sorts
of issues. What we have seen is failing on numerous levels, not least a failure
of intelligence to anticipate that the Talliban would take back Afghanistan so
quickly after western forces including our own pulled out.
Wednesday’s debate reflected that and while I did not speak
in the debate, I was struck by the number of passionate contributions from
Members from all sides of the House, many of them veterans who have served in
Aghanistan themselves, about the nature of what we are seeing unfold, what we
could have done to avoid it, and what we should now do to assist those many
people in pressing aid who wish to flee the Taliban.
Firstly, there are those saying that our leaving now and the
subsequent take-over by the Taliban has invalidated everything that has gone
before with our prior occupation and work in Afghanistan. I would like to say
to our veterans, the 150,000 who served Queen and Country and to the families
of the 457 who gave their lives, as well as those who came back physically or
mentally wounded, your sacrifice and time spent doing your duty was not in
vain.
Our work over the past two decades made the world a safer
place during that time, and allowing improvements in lifestyle, work and
education choices for women and girls across Afghanistan, breaking the cycle of
conflict that existed for so long. We must provide all the support needed to
our veterans and their families to help them through this difficult time.
Our priority in Afghanistan now needs to be both to evacuate
our own citizens from the country, but also all those who have helped and
supported our operations over the years as well as those who worked with the
previous Afghani government via the Afghanistan Relocations and Assistance
Policy (ARAP).
With this in mind I welcome the Prime Minister’s
announcement of a settlement scheme of up to 20,000 over the coming years and
5,000 this year. This is in addition to those we bring through the ARAP scheme
which has already seen more that 2,000 people brought to the UK since April of
this year.
We also need to make sure that of any further international
aid that goes to Afghanistan will need aid comes with strong conditions to
ensure it is only delivered on the basis of honouring women’s rights and human
rights, and those of the ethnic minorities as well.
In the longer term it is clear that we can no longer be so
reliant on the US as the backbone of future international efforts such as
these. We cannot again be allowed to be in a position where our operations and
the stability of an entire country is solely dependent on the decisions of a
single ally, which has now shown itself to be increasingly isolationist and
inward looking. I am pleased that the UK has stepped up and responded quickly,
showing global leadership once the seriousness of the situation in Afghanistan became
known and I hope we will continue to show real leadership in issues such as
this as well as via NATO in the future.
It has been an incredibly difficult week and my thoughts are
with all those caught up in the conflict in Afghanistan as well as those who have
served and their families at home. But we must learn from what have undoubtedly
been mistakes and move forward to ensure lessons are learned and that they are
not repeated in the future.
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