It is time we start learning from the mistakes of the past over Afghanistan

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Taliban fighters at Kabul airport (AFP via Getty Images)

In the dog days of New Labour, when the bright torch of hope had become dull reality, Gordon Brown proclaimed: “There can be only one winner in Afghanistan: a strong democratic state.” At the same time a Russian general, a veteran of the conflict in the 1980s, was asked by a British documentary maker what advice he had for the west. He said ruefully: “Find the quickest route home.”

I asked my soldier son, who has done several tours in the Hindu Kush, what he thought. He said they were the most prescient words spoken by an invading army commander since Alexander the Great warned 23 centuries before that Afghanistan was easy to march into, but hard to march out of.

I wondered if today’s political leaders might avoid past mistakes, but my son replied: “Not a chance!”

John Cameron

St Andrews

Biden thoughts

Joe Biden’s fumbling administration is putting our nation in danger – their ineptitude would be excellent fodder for a comedy.

And no doubt our allies are horrified, while our enemies laugh.

JoAnn Lee Frank

Clearwater, Florida

Climate push

No one can describe the terrifying repercussions and the denial of climate change more aptly than Mary Robinson who, in 2019, said the denial of climate change is not only ignorant but also “malign and evil” and “undermines the enjoyment of the full range of human rights”.

Climate change is an all-encompassing threat that impacts wide swathes of economic, social and political life. The moral need to place our societies on a sustainable development path while bolstering human rights could not be more imperative.

Munjed Farid Al Qutob

London

Climate change is caused by burning fossil fuels and that is what Extinction Rebellion should focus on.

A way to push prices up to reduce consumption would be to put a carbon tax on all products based on the CO2 they release.

The reduction in demand will push producer prices down and discourage production. Then, instead of generating profits for producers, it will generate tax income for governments to use to generate alternative fuels and stop energy poverty.

Jon Hawksley

London

New training

So the government is looking to potentially return up to 4,500 asylum seekers to Europe. Does anybody there fancy training as an HGV driver, working in meat processing or fruit and vegetable harvesting?

Margaret Adams

Keighley