Bold Ben Wallace should call for an Afghanistan inquiry — under Rory Stewart

There is a telling phrase in the Defence Secretary Ben Wallace ’ s piece in the Sunday Telegraph which is worth noting. He speaks of his efforts to rally others to hold the line in Afghanistan after the US withdrawal: “ But to no avail. Weary publics and parliaments in country after country had no appetite.”

For those of us who had any responsibility in Afghanistan, this is a bleak time, but nothing compared to the despair of those we knew there, and whose terror and apprehension we have seen over the past few days. It is right that our first thoughts are of them. We must wait to see whether the utterances of Taliban leadership to the outside world of a “different Taliban” hold true, or will be swept away by the retribution and impositions on freedom which were the hallmark of its rule in the past.

One of the favourite mementos of my time as Minister for South Asia and Afghanistan 2010-12 sits in front of me as I write. It is a photograph of a crowd of police, at a training centre part funded by the UK, surrounding me and clasping my hand, looking confidently towards the future “long term” relationship between our two states, of which I had just spoken. The sense of trust and friendship in that picture is evident. 

I can barely look at it today. I remember that trust, from the police and army trainees, brave governors under constant threat of assassination, university students, learning within sight of the beautiful Blue Mosque in Mazar-i-Sharif. Most of all, I remember the trust of the women in civil society, who were working with a corrupt and imperfect Afghan Government, and knew that an international presence was essential for their hopes, and the dispelling of their fears.

They are all learning that “long term” in Western democratic societies means only about 20 years. And whilst the Parliamentary debate this week will concentrate on Afghanistan itself, we need to confront that concept of “enduring”, and the wider implications of what we are witnessing.

Ben Wallace has done well in outspoken comments about the appalling deal done in Doha by President Trump, and the impossible situation handed to the new Biden administration in Washington, and his personal pain as a veteran is clear. He should be encouraged to continue: his criticism will not affect the relationship with the US, which is big enough to recognise error and learn from it, particularly with a partner which had given so much in a common cause. But I hope he can now raise the issue behind that sense of “weariness” which he detected.

It has been clear for some time that liberal democracies are under attack. Anne Applebaum ’ s excellent 2020 book Twilight of Democracy highlights the challenges and threats, from authoritarianism to populism. It is one thing to see authoritarian regimes strengthening their grip; those who offer their peoples a different form of government to ours will be heartened by the humiliation in Kabul. It is another to see previously democratic states challenged by extremism, from India to Hungary or Brazil. It is hard to watch an international order unable to protect those in Belarus, as a state removes the inconvenience of democracy for the benefit of its leadership.

And it is yet another to watch as those in Afghanistan, who wanted only what we experience in terms of choice of life, of government, of advancement and self-determination now being crushed because those on whom they had pinned their hopes, who had come to their country to encourage them in such beliefs, have chosen to leave. Why? Because they are “weary”.

Let me be blunt. The challenge that is now appearing is between the values of centuries, of what we have held dear in terms not only of personal advancement and domestic governance, but of international order and stability, and the values of those who would crush such individual freedoms, in many more states than Afghanistan, in pursuit of various religious or secular ideologies of denial. Those who propagate such beliefs are further strengthened today by yet more evidence that their definition of “long term” is rather longer than ours. They do not grow weary.

We need to reflect on all this, and with urgency. I agree that there should be some form of inquiry into our engagement with Afghanistan itself, but it must go wider. What do we stand for? What are we prepared to defend? Who will we stand by, how, and when? What will Government and Parliament authorise in terms of deployment of our outstanding forces in the future? Only to defend Gibraltar and the Falklands? Are even they still safe?

I suggest that Rory Stewart should be tasked with chairing this Inquiry, as it requires an intellectual curiosity and a world view which his experience (not least of Afghanistan) and independence of party makes him ideally suited for.

Ben Wallace is the right man to urge the Prime Minister to invite him. He should do it today.

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