Afghanistan
Unfortunately I wasn’t chosen to speak in the debate on Afghanistan today. I’ve tapped out my speaking notes below for a flavour of the speech I planned to give:
Thank you Mr Speaker.
Many people bear scars from the last 20 years in Afghanistan. There has been such a terrible cost to our intervention there, but also hard-won gains which, I hate to say, now seem all too imperilled and at risk.
It has been my honour to meet with local veterans of this campaign and to speak with them. They bear some of those scars I mentioned. Some are very visible indeed. Others are harder to see - deep mental scars such as a near-total collapse at the sound of a car backfiring, and the stresses and strains put on their families. On that note, I am very grateful that my Rt Hon Friend the Health Secretary has agreed to look at increasing mental health provision for those who have served our armed forces and so badly need that help.
I have never served, Mr Speaker, but my thanks go to all those who have - from across Barrow and Furness, and across our great nation too.
Many continue to serve even now, and it’s only right that we pay tribute to those soldiers on the ground, our Ambassdor and his team, the MOD, FCDO and Home Office staff who are putting many others before themselves in this withdrawal.
Of course we want to see this process accelerated and the resettlement programme set up quickly and efficiently. There are so very many people at risk in Afghanistan - women and children, translators, NGOs, former soldiers… the list goes on. The pledge to accept 20,000 refugees is welcome - but we need to see the same from our partners in the EU and further afield.
We must get our people, and those who supported the fledgling democracy, the education of girls, and challenged barbaric practices, out - and fast. But we must also recognise that getting there means more than just the UK offering to support an arbitrary number. We need a coherent and resilient diplomatic response which the UK should seek to define with its NATO partners, and especially now that we hold the presidency of the G7.
We must recognise the realpolitik of who is in control. Many before me have said that we must judge the Taliban not by their words but by their actions. They promised education for girls yesterday and tarred a man in the street in Kabul today. So we must lead the world and establish a system of recognition underpinned by a sanctions regime that will kick-in if rights are infringed up. We must establish aid and refuge routes as a priority, especially for those not near Kabul.
I understand how challenging this is for the Government when the US wants to wash its hands of troop involvement in Afghanistan, but we should step up with an equivalent diplomatic force.
And finally Mr Speaker, as I know many colleagues still wish to speak, we must learn our lessons from this calamity. I wish to endorse the request of my Hon Friend, the Chair of the Defence Committee for a full enquiry. We need to understand how this can be avoided again. How to establish a multi-lateral response if the US is not willing to support. And that winning the peace is not the same as winning the war, and that to walk away is to kick the can down the road, likely at horrific cost later.
Thank you Mr Speaker.
Finally, I would like to highlight one particular speech from today’s debate - that of the Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee, Tom Tugendhat. A former soldier who served in Afghanistan, he gave a remarkable piece of oratory, well worth 8 minutes of your time:
