Although in hind-site, I'll confess to agreeing to the decision to topple the Taliban and to put troops in Afghanistan, and the arguments put forward at the time seemed convincing.
But with the ongoing regular tragic deaths and IED mutilations of coalition troops, atrocities from rogue Afghan forces, and now the recent atrocity from a coalition soldier, you do wonder what has been really achieved.
The US President and UK PM are working out an advanced timeline to remove us from the frontline, and to hand over security to the Afghans, which has to be a good thing, or at least for us.
But once the backup and support has gone, will the Afghan security forces be strong enough to resist Taliban pressure? Their families will be leaving in fear, you can imagine corruption and insurgents slowly sliding into the mechanisms of power. Will all the good stuff, reforms, womens rights, kids education, schools and other infrastructure projects be in vain? If the Taliban take full control, do we have to go back in, in a few years?
You'd think the UK would have known better, read any history book, we've been here before, countless times in different places
As extraction dates for combat forces are brought forward, does anyone else have that image of the US Helicopter on the Embassy roof in Saigon?
I don't think anyone will argue about the job done by Coalition forces, I only hope it wasn't simply a tragic waste of life.
Let's hope so. It would be awful to have another person spend time in jail for doing something like throwing shoes at a president. I just hope it all works out now, and that the afghan people can finally have some peace amidst all this. In most "wars", no one ever thinks about the civilians caught in the crossfire.
