TROOP WITHDRAWAL

WITH hubris and complacency, former British prime minister Tony Blair dragged Britain to war in Afghanistan with three overarching objectives: to crush the Taliban, eliminate the opium trade and promote democracy.

To the people of that benighted nation, he also made a solemn pledge: “We will not walk away.”

As a symbolic ceremony marked our final withdrawal after 20 bloody years, those words should make him and the entire political class cringe with shame.

For all the heroism of our at times woefully equipped troops, the mission – just as it was in Iraq – was an unmitigated disaster.

More than 450 British soldiers lost their lives, with thousands more maimed or broken mentally.

And for what? As Coalition forces have pulled out early, the Taliban is resurgent. Opium production flourishes, and rather than reducing the terror threat, our intervention has increased the danger.

As for not walking away from the Afghans, words cannot express the dismay and futility of the situation left in the wake of our withdrawal: thousands who risked their lives serving our troops, including interpreters, are terrified of being left to the mercy of the vengeful Islamists. These men and their families need and deserve asylum in the UK.

The British Government promised not to abandon them. Cutting them adrift would be another unforgivable betrayal.