While there is still controversy about the US and UK involvement in Iraq, officially at least everyone seems agreed that the war against the Taliban in Afghanistan is a just cause.
While it’s hard to argue with the post-9/11 action in Afghanistan (Osama bin Laden had taken up residence there) the current second phase of the campaign is much more contentious although it’s deemed to be lily-livered to say so.
Now Britain’s ambassador to Afghanistan, the splendidly-named Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles (pronounced Cooper-Coles no doubt) has let slip in a conversation with the French that the situation is “getting worse”, the Afghan government is corrupt and that the coalition’s presence is “part of the problem not the solution.”
This is all a bit odd, not so long ago Sir Sherard was telling us all (with apparent relish) that coalition forces might have to stay in Afghanistan for 30 years before peace, magically somehow, broke out around 2030.
It’s also interesting that the leak has a French source. So far the French have declined to become involved in hotspots like Helmand Province although a French patrol was recently ambushed with heavy casualties close to Kabul.
Bellicose French president Nicolas Sarkozy responded by saying the French would send more troops, to sort out those guys in the black hats. This was not greeted with acclamation by the French voters or indeed military.
Most of the French, like the German government, do not see why their troops should be put a risk in a war that looks increasingly unwinnable (just like every other conflict in Afghanistan for the last 200 years). Reconstruction of a struggling country is one thing but you can’t do a lot of constructing when you’re being shot at.
The European forces, including the Brits, are fighting under the NATO banner. Quite what the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, set up to oppose the Russians in Europe in the Cold War, is doing on the North West Frontier is open to debate.
Sir Sherard, who was lying low yesterday, will no doubt surface (following the application of Foreign Office thumbscrews) to say it was all a mistake and he really thinks we’re doing the right thing over there and the Afghan government is full of splendid chaps coping with difficult circumstances.
Don’t think he’ll mean it though, do you?
[Image Attribution: Lisa]