Det spørger Seumas Milne om i dagens Guardian. I stedet for at hænge sig fat i BBCs og andres prædiken af myten on “den gode krig”, hvor vores indsats “gør en forskel”, skærer Milne ind til benet:
This was a war, after all, launched by George Bush and Tony Blair with the stated aim of killing or capturing Osama Bin Laden and the Taliban leader Mullah Omar – and destroying al-Qaida. Eight years later, not one of those objectives has been accomplished. Bin Laden and Omar are still at large, while al-Qaida has spread into Pakistan, Iraq and dozens of other countries around the world.
Nor have any of the other fast-changing war aims – from bringing democracy, development and good governance, to ending the oppression of women and cracking down on opium production – fared much better. British and other Nato troops are now defending one of the world’s most corrupt governments, a cabal of narco-trafficking warlords rubber-stamped by a fraudulent election in which political parties weren’t even allowed to stand; Afghanistan has become the heroin capital of the world; and the position of many women, as women’s leaders such as the suspended Afghan MP Malalai Joya argue, is now worse than it was under Taliban rule.
Most absurd of all is the government’s claim that the Afghan war is preventing terrorism on the streets of Britain. The exact opposite is the case. There were no al-Qaida-style terror attacks in the UK before 2001. And Britain’s role in the invasion and occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq, along with its support for Israel’s occupation of Palestinian land – cited both by the bombers themselves and a string of intelligence reports – has been a central factor in motivating would-be jihadists, who have in any case been mostly home-grown and can train in Leeds as well as Lashkar Gah if they want to carry out atrocities.
Mine fremhævelser. Noget lignende kan siges om den danske indsats, som jeg også skrev i Information for næsten præcis et år siden: Danske soldaters tilstedeværelse i Afghanistan slider på de soldater vi har dernede, og den gør ikke for femogtyve øre gavn.
I mellemtiden er der så sket det, at nogle flere soldater er dræbt dernede, og at femogtyveøren er afskaffet og gjort værdiløs. Nu mangler vi bare at trække vores soldater hjem fra endnu en fejlslagen krig – jo før jo bedre.
Men vil det ikke bare “overlade afghanerne til Taleban” og et blodbad?
Som Milne påpeger, kan en vestlig tilbagetrækning som “garant” for et dybt korrumperet regime bane vejen for en reel aftale, der involverer alle implicerede og måske kunne være første skridt på vejen mod en løsning:
The pressing alternative is presented by the war’s supporters as “abandoning” Afghanistan to a “bloodbath”. That is to stand reality on its head. The only way to end the war is the withdrawal of foreign troops as part of a wider political settlement negotiated with all significant Afghan forces on the ground, including the Taliban – and guaranteed by regional powers and neighbouring states: Pakistan, Iran, China and India.
Such a process is bound to take place eventually – whether or not the British government has the guts to follow the example of Canada and The Netherlands and announce plans to pull out earlier.
Og den bedste forskel Danmark kunne gøre i dén henseende er måske at følge Canadas og Hollands eksempel og sætte en (snarlig) afrejsedato. Som sagt, det er ikke vores krig, den hjælper ikke afghanerne, og den beskytter ikke danskerne mod terror. Lad os se at få de soldater hjem.