Letter to the KM on Afghanistan

While Maidstone trumpets its military history with a new army recruitment centre, the death toll of both British forces and civilians in Afghanistan continues to rise.

The purpose of the US led invasion of Afghanistan was to capture Bin Laden putting an end to al-Qaida and Britain also wanted to end the opium production. Eight years on, as neither of these aims have been achieved, it is surely time to rethink our future involvement.

Firstly, party political discussions about helicopters and equipment simply miss the point - we need to get our troops out of the country.

Secondly, NATO has no legitimacy in the region. It happily supports some Middle Eastern states with appalling records on human rights while adopting an aggressive stance against others. NATO should not be the organisation in charge of security in Afghanistan. It should be the United Nations that takes the lead in restoring a peaceful democracy.

Let's hand Afghanistan to the UN and withdraw from this pointless war.

Stuart Jeffery