SubscribeUK’s Lord Ashdown Says Afghanistan Is Lost
From the UK’s Telegraph:
Afghanistan is lost, says Lord Ashdown
By Tom Coghlan
25/10/2007
Nato has “lost in Afghanistan” and its failure to bring stability there could provoke a regional sectarian war “on a grand scale”, according to Lord Ashdown.
The former United Nations High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina delivered his dire prediction after being proposed as a new “super envoy” role in Afghanistan.
Lord Ashdown said: “We have lost, I think, and success is now unlikely.”
The assessment will be considered extreme by some diplomats but timely by those pressing for more resources for Nato operations.Lord Ashdown added: “I believe losing in Afghanistan is worse than losing in Iraq. It will mean that Pakistan will fall and it will have serious implications internally for the security of our own countries and will instigate a wider Shiite [Shia], Sunni regional war on a grand scale.
“Some people refer to the First and Second World Wars as European civil wars and I think a similar regional civil war could be initiated by this [failure] to match this magnitude.”
Lord Ashdown, 66, the former leader of the Liberal Democrats, was speaking in advance of a Nato summit in the Dutch town of Noordwijk yesterday.
Britain and the US infuriated [sic] by the lack of assistance granted by allies to those countries with forces operating in Afghanistan.
The tensions are particularly acute given that members pledged a year ago that they would do everything within their power to ensure “success” in the country.
With a growing sense in Kabul that the reconstruction and military efforts are lacking focus, Britain and the US are pushing for the creation of a super envoy and are looking for a political heavyweight to fill the role…
What a surprise that a former UN representative would offers such helpful comments. And remember, Afghanistan is the war that liberals now like to pretend they supported.
Anyway, how is it possible that this gentleman is being considered for the new role of “super envoy” to Afghanistan?
Don’t we have enough defeatists?
9 Responses to “UK’s Lord Ashdown Says Afghanistan Is Lost”
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October 25th, 2007 at 10:53 am
Lord Paddy Ashdown (or “Paddy Pantsdown” as he was known after his adulterous activities became public knowledge) is an ex-officer in the SAS who in the 90s was leader of the far-Left and perpetually third place Liberal Democrat party until he quit to be replaced by a carrot-topped alcoholic named Charles Kennedy. After being ennobled by Tony Blair, Lord Pantsdown became the UN’s big overlord in Bosnia, where, apparently he did a good enough job.
I’d take his Afghanistan comments as a warning and a reminder because, yes, we could lose it if (a) our NATO “partners” don’t start pulling their weight and (b) we keep doing dumb, self-defeating things like trying to eradicate opium production when its the main source of income for most people - we could just buy it ourselves but noooo, that would be too easy - and (c) reconstruction remains stalled.
BTW, many people probably know that British service personnel get little practical (poor housing for their families, have to buy their own boots, no radios, no choppers, not enough of everything) or political support when they’re in the field and almost none if they’re wounded (no military hospitals anymore, for example, they go right from Iraq and in with everyone else in our killer virus-infested Health Service). The Royal British Legion does a terrific job on behalf of UK vets and their annual Poppy Day fundraising drive is on now. More info about the good stuff they do is at http://www.britishlegion.org.uk
October 25th, 2007 at 11:27 am
“Paddy”’s real name, btw, is Jeremy John Dunham Ashdown, Baron Ashdown of Norton-sub-Hamdon, GCMG, KBE, PC
PC stands for “Privy Council”, KBE is “Knight of the British Empire” and GCMG stands for “God Calls Me God” (actually its the “Order of St Michael and St George”)
October 25th, 2007 at 1:15 pm
Artboy, I love your inside scoop on these guys. Lord Pantsdown - what a hoot. And you know, that’s not a bad idea at all, just buying the opium from the afghan growers ourselves. They sell it for for what - five cents a ton? It’s the middlemen who refine and distribute it who make the zillions. We’d save a lot of money and heartache all around.
October 25th, 2007 at 1:20 pm
For what should be obvious reasons, this comment:
Britain and the US infuriated [sic] by the lack of assistance granted by allies to those countries with forces operating in Afghanistan. seriously pisses me off -though I do understand the frustration with most of the NATO countries.
What I wonder about is how someone tough and ballsy enough to be an SAS member -much less an officer- winds up as a leader of a far-left political party ???
And trumpeting defeat like that ?
October 25th, 2007 at 3:09 pm
Why not just pay them the going price to NOT grow it in the first place? If we buy it after it’s grown, you just know some of it is going to wind up in the wrong hands. Pay them to NOT grow it and grow other crops the land will support, if any.
October 26th, 2007 at 4:47 am
The only up side to this poppy production thing is that most of it goes through Iran, leaving the Iranians with the highest rate of heroin addiction in the world and hopefully too junked up to finish building that Islamic bomb they’re not working towards.
But seriously, here’s the Afghanis trying to scratch a living from about the only thing that’ll grow out there, apparently, and a bunch of white-faced infidels show up out of the blue one day and start telling them what’s what and burning their fields and they’re supposed to just take it? I don’t think so - I wouldn’t. We should just buy the stuff, if we’re so bothered - hospitals need opiates, right? - but politically that would be awkward, since it would be spun as supporting drug production, so Akbar the Afghan and his family end up carrying the can for our dumb ass phobias about drugs.
October 26th, 2007 at 8:25 am
artboy is correct about how Britain treats its soldiers. In all honesty if America wants to win, better to let all the others go. The sad thing about this world is that, the greater the input from all the countries, the less gets achieved. Get a few allies like Australia and send someone like Petraeus to head the mission. Most countries in Europe don’t believe in fighting, let alone fighting for someone else, somewhere else.
October 26th, 2007 at 8:36 am
You said it, MK. If it was just us, the Brits, the Canadians, the Aussies and the Poles - we’d get a lot more done a lot faster.
October 27th, 2007 at 11:23 am
Little late to this party, but my favorite comment about Afghanistan was good ol’ Mr. Rumsfeld, who when asked “Aren’t you running out of targets in Afghanistan?” He replied,
“We’re not running out of targets in Afghanistan. Afghanistan is running out of targets in Afghanistan.”
Say what you will about DR, his attitude is sorely missed