Dien Bien Phu or Saigon?

 

First public meeting of a new Parliamentary group attracted the interest of the Commons Police tonight.

Eight of them turned up to police the 50 people who attended the first public meeting of the All Party Parliamentary Afghanistan Withdrawal Group. It's more innocent that than it sounds. The officers are Green MP Caroline and me as chairs, plus a Tory, Plaid Cymru and Lib Dem MPs as officers.

The police refused to let the public into the meeting room until I, as the sponsoring MP, turned up five minutes before the meeting. They refused to let me out of the room to do interviews with three waiting television crews until everyone else had left the room. It's the word "Afghanistan that worried them.

Will our exit in 2015, or earlier, be a Dien Bien Phu or a Saigon? Will t be orderly after a deal with local people or a panic rout from the roof of the embassy? Public opinion says get out. Parliament says  we'll continue to believe the manic optimism of our front-benches that says that everything will be OK.

William Hague was at it again today. Optimism, optimism, optimism. Fantasy, Fantasy Fantasy. All will work out right with the support of the Afghan Army and Police.

It tragically will end in tears.

 

Comments

[Simon Cooke]

Agree with the objective but your history's a tad didgy - Dien Bien Phu was a massive disaster for France. The first of the 20th century's greatest military tacticians great victories!

Mind Afghanistan provides plenty of its own examples of military failure down the years!

[Paul Flynn]

It's not the best of comparisons. It's not the battle it's the surrender afterwards. But you make a fair point Simon.