The former Secretary-General of NATO, Lord Robertson of Port Ellen, delivered the Christopher J Makins Lecture at the Atlantic Council of the US in Washington DC earlier this month.
We are on the edge of a precipice looking down on a world of growing disorder and discontent and only blunt talk and straight language will save us from falling over. Is this too apocalyptic? Dangerous scaremongering? I’m sad to say that I don’t think that I’m exaggerating.
The recent decision by the Dutch to withdraw their troops by this year-end from NATO’s mission in Afghanistan throws into stark relief the nature of the Alliance’s crisis. The Dutch, and the Canadians who also say they will leave this year, have both made valiant contributions to what has to be done in Afghanistan and there have been awful sacrifices with it, so I cast no aspersions on them alone. But if these two robust allies and those who may be thinking of doing the same, and additionally those who contribute less than they should, can all shy away from their obligation stemming from the decision taken unanimously in 2003, what is it other than a crisis?
We all knew why we went in. We knew our own safety was at stake if the Taliban continued providing a safe haven for the bloodthirsty criminal killers of Al Queda. That’s why the decision was taken in the first place to go to Kabul to take over ISAF, and then to extend out via the provincial reconstruction teams in the regions. And surely we all now realise what will happen if we leave prematurely, without a sustainable Afghan state in place.
Rest assured, if the Taliban and their allies can defeat the most successful defence alliance in history, why should they stop at Afghanistan? They won’t. We all know all that, so why can’t we join the dots between going in and getting out?
The Netherlands is just one fallen government, one divided parliament, one polarised people, and one bemused army. But they are not alone. Public opinion in Germany, in France, in Italy and Spain and even in the UK is all swinging to troop withdrawal and the raising of hands. And why? Why is there such a wobbling of commitment among these European countries, many of whose very survival and freedom today depended on allied solidarity only a couple of generations ago? I will tell you why I think it is. It is because governments do not explain with sufficient force and passionate conviction why being in Afghanistan, and winning there, matters to the peace and security and safety of people a continent and a half away.
It is a stark fact that we could lose to the Taliban in Afghanistan and let loose the hosts and apologists of AQ with all that means simply because governments in the NATO countries will not spell out what the high stakes are for all of us – we who will be the next target set of the extremists. It is not enough for the NATO Secretary General alone, still less for an ex-Secretary-General, to tell the people of allied countries how ruinous and disastrous it would be if we left Afghanistan with the job unfinished. Political leaders right across the Alliance need to do it – and they need to do it urgently.
Rt Hon Lord Robertson of Port Ellen was Secretary-General of NATO between 1999 and 2003. He was Secretary of State for Defence, 1997
to 1999.
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