UK MP & Army veteran hits out at NATO’s ‘abandonment’, slams Biden barbs for Afghan forces....
UK MP & Army veteran hits out at NATO’s ‘abandonment’, slams Biden barbs for Afghan forces....
New Delhi: UK Conservative MP Tom Tugendhat, a former member of the armed forces, Wednesday hit out at US President Joe Biden and the withdrawal of NATO forces from Afghanistan in an impassioned speech to the House of Commons, the lower house of the British Parliament.
He also expressed disappointment at Biden’s remarks on the Afghanistan military — in a televised address Monday, the US President said the “Afghan military collapsed, sometimes without trying to fight”.To see (the US) commander-in-chief call into question the courage of men I fought with, to claim that they ran, is shameful. Those who have never fought for the colours they fly should be careful about criticising those who have,” said Tugendhat.“So let us stop talking about forever wars. Let us recognise that forever peace is bought, not cheaply, but hard, through determination and the will to endure. The tragedy of Afghanistan is that we are swapping that patient achievement for a second fire and a second war,” he added.
Tugendhat, who chairs the Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee, concluded his speech by emphasising the need to help civilians escape the Taliban regime and to take refugees.
Earlier this year, Biden had announced that all American troops in Afghanistan will withdraw from the country by 11 September after 20 years of war. It’s a decision that was set in motion by his predecessor Donald Trump.
The withdrawal has set the stage for the resurgence of the Taliban, who were ousted from power in the country in 2001, and the insurgent group took over the capital city of Kabul Sunday.
“This does not need to be defeat, but at the moment it damn well feels like it,” Tugendhat said of the situation in Afghanistan.