Our mission in Afghanistan is destined to fail. NATO should withdraw

We cannot succeed with military force

Speaker: Clare Short MP

Arguing in favour of the motion 'Our mission in Afghanistan is destined to fail', Clare Short states from the outset that she is not arguing for an immediate and humiliating withdrawal. Instead she is calling for NATO to wihdraw, while some nations' troops must remain to oversee a transfer of power to Afghan forces. She puts forward two main reasons why the mission is destined to fail: first, that the post-conflict period since 2001 has been mishandled; second, that the international presence in Afghanistan is acting as a recruiting mechanism, directing more and more fundamentalist militants towards terrorism. She ends by underscoring two further risks: that NATO could be eternally humiliated and that Afghanistan could become a narco-state.