Part of Oral Answers to Questions — Foreign and Commonwealth Office – in the House of Commons at 2:30 pm on 19 February 2008.
Peter Tapsell
Conservative, Louth and Horncastle
2:30,
19 February 2008
In judging political progress in Afghanistan, has it occurred to the Foreign Secretary how disbelieving Mr. Attlee would have been if he had been warned that, 60 years after he had withdrawn the British Army from the Indian sub-continent, there would be a Labour Government so stupid as to send yet another undermanned, ill-equipped army to the north-west frontier, when, in the preceding century, the British Raj, with all its expertise in Pathan tribal politics, had never been able to pacify the area?
Annotations
Anthony WALKER
Posted on 20 Feb 2008 2:49 pm (Report this annotation)
Quite right, Sir Peter, You have hit the nail on the head again - (In respect of this Nu Labour Government - Starting from the Blair days: Never have so few done so much damage in such a short time!)
David Clark
Posted on 20 Feb 2008 8:01 pm (Report this annotation)
And I recall the then defence secretary, John Reid, announcing that the British troops in Afghanistan would not need to fire one shot in anger. None of the people I discussed this with at the time beieved this could possibly be the case. It is a poor reflection of our representatives' judgement that they could have got it so wrong then, and they continue to fight a war today at the same time as they are slashing the real MOD budget.