Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair has sharply criticized the withdrawal of Western forces from Afghanistan, calling it dangerous and unnecessary.
“Leaving Afghanistan and its people is tragic, dangerous, unnecessary, it is not theirs [Afganistānas tautas] interests and not in our interests, “emphasizes the former head of the British government in an article published on the website of his non – profit organization, the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change.
“We didn’t have to do it. We chose to do it,” said Blair, 68, who was a Labor Party leader from 1994 to 2007 and a prime minister from 1997 to 2007.
“We did this under the foolish political slogan of ending ‘eternal wars,'” Blair wrote. The sentence is seen as a direct criticism of US President Joe Biden, who used the phrase “eternal wars” during the election campaign last year.
The withdrawal of U.S. and foreign forces from Afghanistan, which allowed the Islamist Taliban to take control of almost the entire country, was “praised by every jihadist group around the world,” Blair said.
He also writes that “anyone who has been promised by Western leaders will see them as unstable, and [šādas nostājas iemeslus varēs] to understand”.
In addition, Russia, China and Iran will take advantage of the West’s departure from Afghanistan, warns Blair, who was a key ally of then-US President George W. Bush in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq earlier this century.
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