Yesterday was the deadliest day so far for the United States of its 10-year war in Afghanistan, as thirty members of the American special forces were killed when the Taliban shot down a Chinook helicopter.
That brings the US death toll since the start of the conflict to over 1,000. The UK has lost over 300. Afghanistan: countless thousands (ISAF / NATO hasn’t cared to count too closely).
This year, the projected total cost to the US relating to Afghanistan is expected to be $118.6 billion.
As the rating agency Standard & Poor’s downgraded the US top-notch AAA rating to AA+, China took the opportunity to say another downgrade would be inevitable unless the US slashed, among other items, its “gigantic military expenditure”, of which Afghanistan is a huge chunk.
Timely, then, to listen to what Rory Stewart has to say on the matter in this TED Talks speech from a couple of weeks ago: ‘Time to end the war in Afghanistan’.
I don’t think Stewart has all the answers, but he certainly has some of them and meanwhile manages to pose some pretty uncomfortable questions for the war leaders in Washington and Whitehall.
I am the Northern Ireland Programme Director and Head of Nations and Regions at Amnesty International UK.
I’m on Twitter at @PatrickCorrigan
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