Should There Now Be An Enquiry Why We Went Into Afghanistan?

[anotheoldgit]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2595690/STEPHEN-GLOVER-What-scandal-no-ones-held-account-futile-waste-British-lives-Afghanistan.html

[emmie]

no, because it will be expensive, a whitewash, and no politicians who caused our troops to be there and die in their many numbers will be held accountable, it was a fools errand, was always going to end in tears, and cost British lives, for no discernible gain. It will largely revert to how it was before the troops moved in, more's the pity.

[emmie]

to add i feel sadness for every British life lost in that lost cause, i also feel sad for the ordinary Afghanis who got caught up in this mess.

[New Judge]

There’s no point in an enquiry because, as was adequately demonstrated by the farcical Chilcot enquiry into Iraq, nobody will be held to account, no sanctions or punishment will be handed out, the entire thing would be an expensive waste of time and much of the “evidence“ would be redacted anyway.

The question as to why British troops were sent to Afghanistan will never be properly answered. It‘s been asked and answers ranging from “To keep the UK safe“ to “to enable Afghan girls to receive an education“ have been mentioned.

Now had they been sent to Pakistan instead, I might be able to provide an answer myself.

[emmie]

to keep us safe has to be one of those statements one would point out to those politicians time and time again, we aren't any safer, if anything it's made things much worse. I would personally kick Blair in the crown jewels for all the deaths, and those politicians who followed suit, sending our troops to this largely ungovernable country was a tragic waste.

[TTG]

Meddling in the middle east has probably compromised the security of the country for years to come. Enquiry into why we went in? Lets just learn from it and keep away from other countries problems.

[emmie]

then of some say we should intervene, in Syria for example, then wonder why it goes tits up

[jno]

there's no secret at all about why we went into Afghanistan: it was to flush out the Taliban and the al-Qaeda training camps, in the wake of 9/11. Nobody protested at the time (did any of those on this thread do so?).

And no secret about why we lost: because we wandered off into Iraq before the Afghan job was done.

The Iraq war remains the real scandal, because it should never have happened, and people did protest. The Afghan one we just lost.

[emmie]

i didn't join this site until 2011, was it that long ago, and i was against intervention at the time, and since, a colossal waste of lives, money

[sandyRoe]

Our troops went there because the Americans did.

[whirlyhurly]

Even the Russians had to pull out -- enough said !

[emmie]

this makes our intervention look like a tea party, we should stay out of their affairs, we have enough problems at home

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_war_in_Afghanistan

[youngmafbog]

We lost ?

As we had no end game plan how can you measure that?

No, we should not hold an enquiry. Anything of any interest will be lock in official secrets (well I hope it would be) and anything that isn't will be glossed over if unpalatable.

In addition hindsight is a wonderful thing and to class it as a waste of lives is rather demeaning the efforts fo those that have been out there. We simply dont know what would have happened if we had not been there, for instance what if the Taliban built up a huge base and attacked the World (via terrorism )? What would you be posting then?

The best thing we can do is learn from it for the future.

[naomi24]

No - enough money has been wasted.

[keyplus90]

And what about futile waste of Afghan and Pakistani lives that count in thousands or even hundereds of thousands?

[naomi24]

Keyplus, ask the Taliban and the al-Qaeda.

[jno]

we hardly won, did we, ymb? Nor was it a draw since we're leaving and they're not. The game plan was nebulous but amounted to rooting out terrorism, which for a while looked like being successful; but in the end we just encouraged it by starting another war against another Muslim country..

Useful article here:

http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/magazine/the-case-for-an-afghanistan-inquiry-bronwen-maddox-iraq-opium-helmand-cost-achievement/

The first question, about Iraq, pretty much sums up my own conclusions above. We had to go into Afghanistan, for all sorts of good reasons, and I have no problem with that. It was the stupid war in Iraq that cooked our goose.

I entgirely agree with your comments about hindsight.