The corruption, ineptitude and infiltration of the Afghan Security forces appeared to have had hit rock bottom. 300 Afghan soldiers fled and abandoned a convoy they were guarding when it was attacked by 7 Taliban fighters. United Nations peacekeepers were lynched while the Afghan Police guarding them fired their weapons into the air.
Now their reputation has sunk to subterranean levels. Nearly 500 prisoners are free in the second major escape from a prison in Kandahar. The were captured originally by Nato forces at huge cost in blood and treasure. Now that the poppy growing season is over and fighting season has begun, the Taliban are strengthened by hundreds of their most experienced fighters. The benefits of six months of Nato optimism-boosting propaganda is destoyed in a single morale-collapsing blow.
Parliament will assemble tomorrow. What new optimism will Hague and Fox manufacture to persuade us that all is well and the security of Afghanistan will be in safe hands when the UK troops withdraw?
Today they will be working on the delicate task of reshaping the big lie.
This was the Hague version earlier this month:
Paul Flynn (Newport West) (Lab):Does not the failure of the armed Afghan police to stop the lynchings of the United Nations workers, along with the previous retreat by 300 members of the Afghan army when they were attacked by seven members of the Taliban, cause the right hon. Gentleman to reassess his very optimistic belief that the security of Afghanistan can be left in the hands of the police and the army when our troops withdraw?
Mr Hague: I do not think we have ever suggested that the Afghan national security forces are able to look after every security situation in Afghanistan on their own—clearly they are not. If they were already able to do that, we would not need to be in Afghanistan. We want to get them in a position in which they can do that from 2014 onwards.
Since the hon. Gentleman points to some of the deficiencies of the Afghan national security forces, it is important also to point out that many of them are doing excellent work, partnered with our troops in Helmand, and that a huge proportion of the military operations around Kandahar over the past year have been undertaken by the Afghan forces themselves. We must not give an unrepresentative account of the capabilities of those forces.
He is a good friend that speaks well of us behind our backs.
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