The west betrays the people of Afghanistan again and again – Boris Johnson shows no sign breaking that habit

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A Taliban fighter runs towards a crowd outside Kabul airport, Afghanistan (Reuters)

The west has blood on its hands and is about to have even more. The people of Afghanistan have been betrayed again and again by the powerful western governments which mindlessly joined the vengeful response of the United States following the events of 9/11. We blindly followed the US into the invasion of Afghanistan, continuing a long tradition of trying to control this strategically placed nation.

Successive UK governments have perpetuated the narrative of Afghanistan harbouring terrorists, and still today it seems that Boris Johnson is driven by the twin imperatives of getting UK citizens out of the country and trying to prevent Afghanistan “lapsing back into being a breeding ground for terror”.

No mention of the millions of Afghans whose lives are about to be shattered. How is he planning to prevent that “lapse”? What is he planning to do? Enter negotiations with the Taliban? Do he and his cabinet have the remotest understanding of the brutal extremist ideology of these people? Being proud of what has been achieved in helping to educate some women and girls is totally irrelevant in the face of what is about to happen.