A thread about Brexit and Afghanistan. In many, perhaps most, ways they are separate issues, but there are some important interconnections/ overlaps. One is about the vanity of the idea of 'Global Britain' as a military power that grows from Brexit nationalism ... 1/7
... as evidenced by Johnson's 'Britain is back East of Suez' speech when Foreign Secretary (gov.uk/government/spe…) and subsequent posturing such as deploying the UK's Carrier Strike Group in the South China Sea. It's as if Suez had never happened. 2/7
Ironically, but for Eurosceptic fears of an EU super state and an EU army, the UK whilst in the EU might have forged & led the development of an EU military capacity, instead of insisting that only NATO was about security and the EU should be just a trade bloc. Too late now. 3/7
Military issues aside, UK diplomatic and soft power has been squandered by Brexit in general and by Johnson in particular. UK's reputation for pragmatic commonsense, trustworthiness (NIP) and respect for domestic (prorogation) and international law (IMB) has been shredded. 4/7
That matters in all kinds of ways, including undermining the weight of UK demands that the Taliban honour its commitments to protecting human rights. An unlikely prospect anyway, but UK authority to demand it now much reduced. 5/7 itv.com/news/2021-08-1…
Meanwhile, Brexity nativism over refugee policy and international development policy hampers & probably precludes the UK doing what little it can now do for the Afghan people, including those who worked for us. Disgusting in itself, and further corrosive of our reputation. 6/7
Finally, the Afghanistan pull-out - just at the logistical level - exposes again the utter mediocrity of a government whose ministers, from Johnson down, owe their position solely to genuine or professed fealty to 'getting Brexit done', with competence irrelevant. 7/7
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