When I visited Camp Bastion in Helmand province last year, I was stunned by what I saw. They have built what amounts to a small town from scratch in the desert, with some of the finest military hospital facilities in the world. They transport, maintain and repair a vast array of equipment in the searing summer heat and bitter winter cold. And the young men and women who are fighting the Taleban in our name do so with unswerving determination. It is difficult not to be swept up by the sheer heroism of the mission.
It was only when I left Helmand that the nagging questions began. Why, despite this heroic effort, are we still no nearer to victory? The answer is brutal — the political strategy required for success has been missing for the eight long years we have been in Afghanistan.
I have always supported the aims of the mission, but I find it morally reprehensible to ask young men and women to risk life and limb in conflict without a strategy. That is why six months ago I felt it was finally time to break the political consensus on this war and start asking publicly the difficult questions. Predictably enough, I was accused of looking for a way to drop the Liberal Democrat commitment to our mission. Yet I believe it is the duty of politicians to ask why soldiers are dying in pursuit of a strategy that isn’t working.
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