It must be our priority now to protect those people left behind, writes Labour MP and former Territorial Army infantry officer Clive Lewis'We are now witnessing the grim cost of a failed strategy in Afghanistan'There could have been a much better exit strategy but instead we have had a foreign policy disaster. We left combat operations in Afghanistan in 2013 so have had more than seven years to comprehensively prepare the Afghan government for the allies' withdrawal. We could have spent more time developing Afghanistan but the UK Government drastically cut its aid budget to the nation. The whole mechanics of leaving Afghanistan was incredibly poor - the Government thought it would be out of sight, out of mind. It must be our priority now to protect those people left behind and prevent further needless deaths.

Source: Daily Mirror August 29, 2021 13:18 UTC