Twenty years ago, Tony Blair engaged Great Britain in the war in Afghanistan alongside the United States. Today, the collapse of the Afghan government and the seizure of power by the Taliban are causing the former British Prime Minister to react. And his first reaction since the regime change in Kabul is very critical of the West.
“The abandonment of Afghanistan and its people is tragic, dangerous and unnecessary, (it is) neither in their interest nor in ours,” he wrote in an article posted on Saturday on the site of his foundation. “By observing the consequences of the decision to return Afghanistan to the same group from which the 9/11 carnage started, and in such a way that we seem to stage our humiliation, the question posed allies and enemies alike is: has the West lost all strategic will ”?
The former Prime Minister, much criticized for his eagerness to follow the United States in Afghanistan and Iraq, explains that the current strategy of the West will be harmful to them in the long term. “The world no longer knows what the West stands for, so obvious that the decision to withdraw from Afghanistan in this way was motivated not by strategy but by politics,” writes Tony Blair. “We did it to the applause of all the jihadist groups in the world.” Above all, according to him, “Russia, China and Iran are watching and profiting from it. The commitments made by Western leaders will obviously be considered a devalued currency ”.