MPs on the House of Commons foreign affairs committee ran up the white flag yesterday when they declared in their report that peace talks must be held with the Taleban in Afghanistan, since the current General Petraeus’s tactic in the country, that of fighting the Taleban to a standstill, was not working.
For good measure, the committee added that the US must step up efforts to hold talks with the Taleban if a political resolution is to be reached.
Conservative MP Richard Ottaway, the committee’s chairman, caught the mood of the moment when he said that ‘Every day you’re fighting you’re not talking.’
This is after 10 years of the war and thousands of US, UK and NATO casualties, and tens of thousands of Afghan casualties.
The far sighted committee, however, has made another amazing discovery.
It suggested in its report that far from victory being ahead, it had already been achieved.
In fact, the British government’s stated purpose for having troops in Afghanistan – to protect UK national security – may have been achieved ‘some time ago’ because al-Qaeda’s strength in the country appeared limited, said the committee.
This ‘limited’ strength of the Taleban has in fact fought the US-UK-NATO forces to a standstill.
The Tory MP Ottaway told the BBC, ‘There is no doubt there have been great tactical successes in the south, but at the end of the day we can’t win militarily.
‘If you can get Pakistan, the US, Afghanistan and the Taleban around the table that is a very important role for the British government.’
The Taleban must be laughing at this great victory for the US and the UK.
The leading US military leader in Afghanistan, Petraeus, is to leave his command shortly.
However, there is a problem. According to Ottaway it is difficult to begin talks with the insurgents, since ‘There is no address for the Taleban.’
As well, he is worried that ‘There is a danger that, without political leadership, the current military campaign is in danger of inadvertently derailing efforts to secure a political solution to what is essentially a political problem.
‘The US should not delay its significant involvement in talks with the Taleban leadership because, without US support in this respect, there can be no longer-term peace in Afghanistan.’
In fact talks have now been going on for some time, and Taleban leaders have been brought from the border area with Pakistan, under a US-UK safe conduct, to take part in talks with the imperialist powers.
They can now be very confident that shortly they will be playing a leading role in the Afghan government.
And what of the British ‘heroes’ that waged the war for both Tory and Labour governments.
They will be treated with the traditional ruthlessness that the British ruling class reserves for its cannon fodder. They are to get their P45s in many cases.
This has been confirmed by the announcement that 5,000 RAF job cuts are to be made as part of 11,000 compulsory redundancies in the UK armed forces.
Defence Minister Fox waxed cynically, ‘There is never a good time to announce redundancies. But if we are to keep faith with our personnel, we must follow the timetables we have set out for them.’
There is a lesson to be learnt from the Yugoslav, Iraq and Afghan wars, and now the savage cuts that are to be imposed in the UK.
