The British government is surging hundreds of soldiers back into Afghanistan, ostensibly to help evacuate some 4,000 people with British citizenship who are still in the Islamic republic.
Taliban fighters have rapidly conquered vast swathes of the South Asian country, including multiple provincial capitals and the historic capital of Kandahar, since the Western powers began withdrawing in earnest — a collapse which seems to have surprised London and Washington D.C. with its speed and scale.
“I have authorised the deployment of additional military personnel to support the diplomatic presence in Kabul, assist British nationals to leave the country and support the relocation of former Afghan staff who risked their lives serving alongside us,” the British Secretary of State for Defence, Ben Wallace, has announced in response to the disaster.
“The security of British nationals, British military personnel and former Afghan staff is our first priority. We must do everything we can to ensure their safety,” he added.
Just days ago U.S. President Joe Biden said the Western-backed regime in Kabul have “got to fight for themselves, fight for their nation,” but Pentagon press secretary John Kirby has now announced that America, too, will be surging thousands of troops back into Afghanistan on a “temporary mission”.
“We share widespread dismay that the security situation in Afghanistan is deteriorating so much faster than forecast,” said John Healey MP, the Shadow Secretary of State for Defence for the opposition Labour party, which first signed off on Britain joining the invasion of Afghanistan to hunt down Osama bin Laden — ultimately found in neighbouring Pakistan some ten years ago — when it was still in power under Tony Blair two decades ago.
He added, contradictorily, that “While our forces are withdrawing, we cannot walk away from the people of Afghanistan”, and so “the UK should not be slashing [foreign] aid and Ministers must push harder diplomatically with countries in the region to try to support a political process.”
How the Taliban might be stopped by more foreign aid payments or “push[ing] harder diplomatically” with Afghanistan’s neighbours — Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Communist China — was not explained.
Healey also called on the Tory government to “ensure all eligible Afghans and their families touch down safely on UK soil… alongside British nationals.”
It has been estimated that “up to three million Afghans will make their way to Europe” as the Western-backed regime’s fall to Taliban forces continues.
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