Shameful chapter closes as UK troops finally withdraw from Afghanistan

I recall, a few years back, one British officer, when having tea with an Afghan tribal leader, being told that “his” tour was not the first time that particular tribe had fought “his” regiment. Likewise an Afghan teenager showing a US officer a family heirloom, a Martini Henry rifle, that was supposedly the former property of Queen Victoria though more probably that of King Edward VII or even his son.

I also recall sometime in the spring of 2007, on the BBC News at Six, Sophie Raworth saying that British public attitudes had flipped to opposition to our involvement.

READ MORE: David Pratt: What was the point of all that suffering in Afghanistan?

Ex-Kilmarnock solicitor and sometime Labour defence secretary Des Browne, at a Royal United Services Institute speech some time later, said –and I paraphrase – that victory in Afghanistan won’t necessarily look like victory to us. To be fair, though, later he said there would be no end settlement without Taliban involvement.

Even after all of that, it took me four separate attempts to get the Standing Orders Committee of my party, the SNP, to accept a motion calling for withdrawal. Needless to say when the membership were allowed eventually to express themselves freely, they – as they tend to do – voted for withdrawal.

Even the STUC congress took an inordinate amount of time to get it right. Only after a particular First Sea Lord delivered a speech, aimed primarily at the unions in defence industries, pointing out that they could either build the carriers or have the Afghan-related service contracts, but not both, did I know the next attempt to have congress policy fully support withdrawal would be successful.

So as this chapter for Scotland, though certainly not for the Afghans, draws to some sort of closure, let’s not pretend there is any Scottish exceptionalism to be extracted from this shameful episode.

On the plus side, John Swinney, during his tenure as SNP leader, did on a bright cold Saturday in February 2003 lead 100,000 folk through the streets of Glasgow against going to war in Iraq. Indeed, the week before Glasgow City council unanimously – yep, even the Tories – supported a motion in the opposing that invasion.

Of course the consequences of that geopolitical disaster of the first rank will be with us for many years to come, in Iraq, in Syria of course, in Libya and now in Mediterranean and even the English Channel.

Bill Ramsay
via email

SINCE Maggie Chapman is one of those who first drew me to support the Scottish Greens, it’s perhaps no surprise that her piece on Piper Alpha interests me (The sea is on fire – we must act now to avoid a disaster, July 9).

I will remember till the day I die my feelings when I first learned of the destruction of Piper Alpha. Not least because, as a then officer of the STUC, I had been personally responsible for instituting the first ever health and safety courses for offshore workers in the late 1970s. So of course I felt a nasty twinge of conscience, that we hadn’t made the courses good enough to prevent Piper Alpha, although I hope we did the best we could. Human life is vital anywhere. Especially in the wilds of the North Sea.

READ MORE: Maggie Chapman: Corporate lies are forcing people to pay the price for climate change

So thank you Maggie, for reminding us all of how we need to fight for green policies always. Not least to ensure that Scotland is never again linked to any such human tragedy.

Dougie Harrison
Milngavie

NOW that the Wimbledon fortnight is over and the Euro final at Wembley has been decided, it is perhaps time to try evaluate the effect these events have had on the crusade against the coronavirus pandemic.

Both events attracted large audiences with very few wearing face masks and social distancing practically non-existent. In the crowd there was no shortage of celebrities without face masks, obviously wanting to be recognised.

If with either one or both of these events there is a wave effect and a surge in the numbers of people testing positive for Covid-19, it could develop into a tsunami which could overwhelm the underfunded NHS England. The real losers would be the people who live in England and depend on NHS England.

Perhaps the people in Scotland have benefitted from the Scottish team exiting the competition at an earlier stage!

Thomas L Inglis
Fintry

I REFER to letter from Kate Armstrong (Jul 8) referring to chicken in supermarket. All the big supermarkets have been selling cheap foreign poultry for years. Journalist Joanna Blythman has been writing on this topic for at least 25 years. This kind of chicken tastes so bad because the birds are reared in factory units, with hundreds of thousands in one building, with only 15 inches of personal space and no ventilation. That is how viruses such as Covid spread. So avoid supermarket chicken like the plague if you want to get life back to normal.

Margaret Forbes
Kilmalcolm