Former UK PM Blair slams America ‘abandonment’ of Afghanistan as tragic
Former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, who took Britain into US-led war on Afghanistan in 2001, has condemned America's “abandonment” of the war-torn country as “tragic, dangerous and unnecessary".
In an article published on his institute’s website late Saturday, Blair criticized the US motives for the withdrawal as “imbecilic” and “driven not by grand strategy but by politics.”
“The abandonment of Afghanistan and its people is tragic, dangerous, unnecessary, not in their interests and not in ours,” he stressed, adding that Britain has a “moral obligation” to stay until “all those who need to be are evacuated."
In comments widely seen as attack on US President Joe Biden, Blair said, “We didn’t need to do it. We chose to do it. We did it in obedience to an imbecilic political slogan about ending ‘the forever wars’ – as if our engagement in 2021 was remotely comparable to our commitment 20 or even 10 years ago.”
Biden repeatedly used the “forever wars” phrase during campaigning last year.
Blair's untrammeled support for the increasingly contraversial and unpopular military interventions in the Middle East was seen as a key factor in him as one of Britain’s longest-serving leaders handing power to his successor, Gordon Brown, in 2007.
In his lengthy article, published by Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, Blair insisted that “the absence of across-the-aisle consensus and collaboration and the deep politicization of foreign policy and security issues is visibly atrophying American power.”
Blair said the West must “give tangible demonstration” that it is not “in epoch-changing retreat” while decrying waning US global leadership.
He accused the US of having “little or no consultation” with Britain over the Afghan withdrawal, saying that London was “at risk of relegation to the second division of global powers."
Former British Prime Minister Theresa May also blasted the UK government for its dependence on the US, asking the MPs, “What does it say about NATO if we are entirely dependent on a unilateral decision taken by the United States?”
Earlier this week, Prime Minister Boris Johnson acknowledged in parliament that Britain could not have stayed in Afghanistan “without American might.”
Johnson has come under fire over his handling of the crisis, including within his ruling Conservative party, amid mounting criticism that Britain has been far too ineffectual.
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