How the West is losing Afghanistan to the Taliban

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How the West is losing Afghanistan to the Taliban

Two years after British Prime Minister David Cameron declared “mission accomplished” in Afghanistan, the war-torn nation is standing besieged by the Taliban, its military faced-down on the floor as terror has returned with a vengeance.
It was December 2013 – In a surprise visit to Camp Bastion base PM Cameron told the world his countrymen successfully fulfilled their military mandate in Afghanistan, and were coming home.

“I think they [the troops] can come home with their heads held high … To me, the absolute driving part of the mission is a basic level of security so it doesn’t become a haven for terror. That is the mission, that was the mission and I think we will have accomplished that mission and so our troops can be very proud of what they have done.”

It is now December 2015 and the Taliban is hounding Afghan security forces, threatening with one smooth swoop to disintegrate whatever military resistance Kabul has mastered to throw at terror’s army. If already back in 2013 British officials viewed the prime minister’s statement as grossly premature, recent developments underscored what many have already labelled as Britain’s criminal oversight.

With a symmetry which would be ironic if not so tragic, the warning Conservative MP John Baron voiced in 2013 came to pass exactly in the fashion he described – if only someone had listened.

Commenting on Cameron’s victory cry, MP Baron theorized: “in one guise or another the West would be handing back chunks of Afghanistan to the Taliban once British and American forces withdrew.”

As of December 23, the Sangin district has fallen almost entirely to the Taliban, leaving the rest of Helmand province open for a complete take over. Mohammad Shakarpuri, an officer posted near Sangin confirmed on Wednesday that “Afghanistan stands once to fall into the hands of ragtag mercenaries … all because Western powers have failed to invest in Afghanistan’s reconstruction.”

Amid a stream of alarming reports by local officials that civilians are fleeing before the advances of the Taliban, Kabul has carried a complete different narrative, offering words of comfort where chaos seems to have all but consumed the ravaged nation.

Speaking from Kabul, Afghanistan’s acting Defense Minister Masoum Stanikzai described the situation in Helmand as “manageable”, noting that fresh support troops had been sent to Helmand province to meet the challenge. While it maybe so, tribal leaders near and around Sangin have complained that Kabul forbade them to take up arms against the Taliban.

Speaking under cover of anonymity for fear of reprisals from both US troops and the Afghan government, members of the Afghan tribal council have accused Kabul government of betrayal as its officials have refused to revive the country’s ancient tribal security system known as Arbaki.

Contrary to popular beliefs the Arbaki is not a militia force, but a cohesive tribal coalition animated by a single goal – the protection of Afghanistan sovereign integrity. More importantly, under the Arbaki system only tribesmen vetted by their respective sheikh are ever allowed to partake, thus guaranteeing unity and order among the troops……..More

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How the West is losing Afghanistan to the Taliban