Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon, the British minister for South Asia and Afghanistan, North Africa, and the prime minister’s special representative on Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict has praised Britain and America’s joint efforts in Afghanistan but said there is still much more to do to ensure the allied nation’s efforts, money, and loss of life were not in vain.
Joe Biden’s disastrous withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan in 2021 left 13 American service members dead and the displacement of thousands of desperate Afghanis.
After 20 years of British and American troops providing stability in the region, Biden suddenly announced that the remaining US soldiers would withdraw from Afghanistan. British troops were forced to follow suit.
Mass chaos ensued as the terror group, the Taliban attempted to forcibly stop citizens from fleeing the country on US cargo planes.
13 US troops died along with numerous civilians as a bomb exploded near Kabul airport as Western nations scrambled to complete their final evacuation flights.
Horrific video footage emerged of desperate Afghanis hanging on the outside of aircraft and some falling hundreds of feet to their deaths.
Biden’s decision left the country to the Taliban, who have since launched an Islamic-Sharia crusade to remove women’s rights and enforce radical religious doctrine.
While the left has always criticized the West occupying Afghanistan, British Conservative life-peer, Lord Tariq Mahmood Ahmad said that despite the dire situation Biden forced on the allied nations and Afghanistan, UK and US militaries should be proud of their joint achievements in both their 20 years of occupation and the mass evacuation effort which followed:
“The UK’s Operation Pitting, and the US’ Operation Allies Refuge, were the largest air evacuation operations in recent memory, and the biggest U.S. and U.K. mission of their kind in generations,” he told Fox.
“Together, our operations saw over 138,000 people successfully evacuated within a fortnight.
“Our joint involvement in Afghanistan, alongside other NATO allies, was a response to the attack on 9/11. This hideous act of terrorism shook not just America, but also us in the U.K. and people in countries all across the free world,” he continued.
He went on to say that because of the UK’s $4.25 billion in aid since 2002, along with US help on the ground, 9.5 million more Afghani children received an education and infant mortality decreased from 87.6 deaths per 1,000 to 46.5 in eight years.
“As we approach the one-year anniversary of the Taliban taking power, we owe a huge debt of gratitude to the nearly 1 million British and American people who served in Afghanistan,” said Lord Ahmad.
“The nearly 3,000 who sadly lost their lives, and to those who have sustained life-changing injuries.
“For 20 years, our troops have denied terrorists a safe haven to launch attacks against the West. And they enabled development that improved millions of lives and transformed Afghan society.”
He went on to say that “there is still work to be done”, particularly in regards to pressuring the Taliban to uphold their promise to improve human rights in the country:
“We regularly press the Taliban on human rights priorities and work with our international partners to lobby against violations and abuses,” said Lord Ahmad.
“As the prime minister’s special representative on Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict, I am especially committed to ensuring Afghan women have freedom over their own bodies and are given a voice to their own futures,” he added.
To conclude the op-ed, Lord Ahmad reiterated that it is now vital for the UK and the US to work together to ensure the best possible future for the citizens who now, thanks to Biden, live under a Sharia regime:
“Today and every day, the U.K. and the U.S. — our day-one, night-one partner — will continue to use every lever at our disposal to improve stability and safety for the people of Afghanistan. International collaboration is crucial in ensuring the gains made in Afghanistan in the last 20 years are not lost,” he concluded.
This story syndicated with permission from Jo Marney, Author at Trending Politics
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