THE start of an Afghan-led peace deal with the Taleban is needed to secure the future of Afghanistan after British troops leave, a group of MPs has said. This can be understood as meaning that unless a peace deal is made with the Taleban now, then ‘we’ will never manage to get out of Afghanistan.
These defeatist sentiments are now being openly expressed by the House of Commons Defence Select Committee, and have the support of the coalition.
For good measure, the Committee added that a failure to initiate such a move could lead to civil war in Afghanistan – more diplomatic words for the overthrow of the Karzai regime and the Taleban taking complete control.
The MPs’ report focused on the planned withdrawal of UK combat troops at the end of 2014 and the transfer of responsibilities to the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF).
The committee said it wanted to see, well before the end of 2014, open and free elections, an appropriately trained and equipped ANSF with continuing financial support, a strong judicial system that protects human rights, continued development aid, effective measures to tackle corruption and the drug trade.
In fact, these demands cannot be carried out by any other government than the Taleban, since drug production has soared under the auspices of the NATO alliance, corrupting everything to do with the government, and those organising it, including leading government ministers and military officials having made and making billions out of it.
The Committee cannot fail to know this situation well, since it is public knowledge around the world.
Committee chairman James Arbuthnot reported: ‘We have received starkly opposing predictions for Afghanistan’s outlook, post 2014.’
Admitting that the UK was now a hostage to fortune in Afghanistan, he added: ‘The fact is that the UK has limited influence. Indeed, it is for the Afghan people themselves to determine their own future.
‘However, the UK and its international partners must show the Afghan people that they will abide by their obligations to continue to support them in their efforts.’
The MPs’ Committee added that they had received ‘very little’ information about the involvement of the Ministry of Defence and the UK Foreign Office in Afghanistan beyond 2014.
There is very little information about this because after 2014, when NATO has cut and run, the input of the UK into Afghanistan will be zero.
The committee meanwhile called on the government to provide detailed plans and costs for withdrawal to ensure the protection of military personnel.
In fact, as soon as the NATO forces have managed to extricate themselves from Afghanistan, then the Karzai government will be no more, and imperialism will have suffered another massive defeat, with a Taleban government in Kabul.
Here, however, it is a question of out of the frying pan into yet another, bigger, fire.
US Defence Secretary Hagel is to visit Israel where he will be discussing intervention into Syria and action against Hezbollah and Iran, after the US Secretary of State Kerry told the Iranian government that the current talks with Iran were running out of time.
US Army General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, last Sunday was asked whether he worries that Syria, in the midst of an attempted regime change, could become another Afghanistan. ‘I do. I have grave concerns that Syria could become an extended conflict,’ that drags on for many years, he said.
The reality is the the UK and the US are now poised to intervene into Syria alongside Israel to make a desperate effort to redraw the map of the Middle East by getting rid of Assad and smashing Hezbollah.
The intention then is to dictate terms to the Palestinians and to Iran. The imperialists are being driven by the crisis from lesser to greater wars. The warmongers must be met with regime change at home. The UK trade unions must tell the government that all British troops must be be called back to the the UK – there must be no intervention into Syria – else the coalition government will be politically joining Thatcher sooner than expected.