War in Afghanistan Public Meeting

12.00.00am GMT Thu 25th Mar 2010

Bristol West MP Stephen Williams spoke to a public meeting on the issue of British involvement in the war in Afghanistan. The meeting, organised by the Bristol branch of the Stop the War coalition, was held at the Friends Meeting House in Redland. Stephen spoke to an audience of around fifty people, and said that British troops had now been involved in conflicts in various parts of the world for the longest period since the turn of the eighteenth century. Since 1997, British troops have seen military action in Sierra Leone, Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq.

Stephen reminded the audience that the Liberal Democrats had opposed the war in Iraq. The conflict in Afghanistan is a different case, as troops were originally committed there with the support of the United Nations in the aftermath of the acts of terrorism on 11th September 2001. Stephen's opinion was that the specific mission to degrade Al-Qaeda training camps, and remove their Taliban sponsors, had been largely achieved by the summer of 2002. Since then, the purpose of the mission has not been totally clear, either to the British public, or arguably the armed forces. At various times it has been stated to be nation building, defending the rights of women or eradicating the poppy crop. Stephen doubted whether a long-term military solution to the chaos in Afghanistan was achievable. Instead, it would be more appropriate if either British troops, or peacekeeping forces from other nations were involved in negotiation with the various tribal groups in the country, in order to provide stability. In the last 150 years, no military power, whether the British Empire, or the Soviet Union, has been able to succeed in a military offensive in Afghanistan.