The UK should never have joined the US invasion, writes Dr Taj Hargey, and its reputation is being stained by America’s unilateral retreat. Plus letters from Jonathan Worthington and Sandra Khadhouri
In Wednesday’s revelatory parliamentary debates there was hardly any mention of the opportunist architects of the failed British involvement in Afghanistan (Tories rebuke Boris Johnson over ‘catastrophic’ Afghanistan failure, 18 August). Tony Blair and his new Labour clique blindly followed a retributive George Bush in invading and occupying Afghanistan. The ultimate blame for the UK’s futile 20-year presence there must be levelled at the slavishly pro-American New Labour party. Why did Blair, Jack Straw, Peter Mandelson and other complicit Labour figures buy in to the US plans that the only solution was to remove Osama bin Laden by full-scale military force? Was this overreach necessary to crush a tiny non-state actor?
By tying itself to the apron strings of the US, Britain’s reputation has been stained by America’s unilateral retreat from Afghanistan. Had Blair taken a leaf out of Harold Wilson’s book – who famously refused Lyndon Johnson’s entreaties to join the US war in Vietnam – the UK would not now be in such an invidious position. When will Britain learn that its national interests are not always identical to, or in symmetry with, hegemonic America? At least some brave parliamentarians now share this view.
Dr Taj Hargey
Provost, Oxford Institute for British Islam