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No idea. On the face of it, a disgrace, although of course there may be more to it than meets the eye.
They knew these people were in grave danger.
There has already been a scandal over the interpreters that we left behind.
When you consider the numbers in this case, it would seem to be a drop in the ocean, compared to the schemes relating to Ukraine, and Hong Kong.
That is without even considering any net migration figures.
There was a time when our word was worth something.
UK nationals and former interpreters stranded after British forces pulled out of Afghanistan have told the BBC they feel abandoned. Now hundreds are fearing for their safety following a UK government data breach. Ahmad, not his real name, is in hiding in Afghanistan.
Afghanistan: 'I feel betrayed. We feel left behind' - BBC
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-58639895#:~:text=UK nationals and former interpreters stranded after British,his real name, is in hiding in Afghanistan.
90,000
Foreign Secretary Liz Truss on Tuesday announced that the UK Foreign Office had received nearly 90,000 requests for resettlement from Hong Kong residents with British National (Overseas) passports.
UK receives 88,000 resettlement requests from Hong Kong
https://www.dw.com/en/uk-receives-nearly-90000-resettlement-requests-from-hong-kong/a-60123602#:~:text=Foreign Secretary Liz Truss on Tuesday announced that,Hong Kong residents with British National (Overseas) passports.
1. Ukrainian visa
In the year ending June 2022, there had been a total of 190,537 visa applications made across all UK visa routes by Ukrainian nationals, with 96,547 applications in the most recent quarter (April-June 2022). Table 1 shows 77% (146,379) of the applications in that quarter were in one of the two new Ukraine Scheme visa routes introduced in response to the war in the Ukraine and 23% (44,158) were in existing immigration routes.
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/immigration-statistics-year-ending-june-2022/statistics-on-ukrainians-in-the-uk
British Special Forces needed local ground support for various purposes. In this particular instance this was for local ground troops to fight alongside the SAS/SBS. So special forces "set up, trained and paid" 2 commando units.
It was standard to give explicit promises to people supporting us against their own countrymen that, should we leave, they were welcome to come to the UK.
What they were not told was that Senior Officers in Special Forces would have the power of Veto in relation to those applications. And that, in the case of these 2 units, that has been applied in every case.
Why has that been done? Presumably, a decision was made that having hundreds of Afghans living in the UK who could identify members of our Special Forces was a bad idea.
The problems are 2-fold.
1. We appear to have lied to people. Effectively sentencing people to death
2. There will always be a next war zone. A next occasion when we need our superb Special Forces. Who, in turn, will need localised support. That are now going to find that a lot harder to get
"There was a time when our word was worth something".
Indeed.
Essexphil does lay out the potential reasoning, but we really should honour the arrangement.
But that should be rare. and should have sound operational reasons behind it.
In this instance, it just looks like someone took a short-term position without properly evaluating the longer-term effects. Both in relation to our standing in the World, and future operations.
We took some and left others behind.
The Sulha Alliance, which is campaigning for the rights of former Afghan interpreters, and which co-ordinated the letter, claims the government only expects to relocate a maximum of 800 interpreters and their families under the ARAP scheme.
It says that number is less than a third of the 3,000 interpreters who worked for the UK. Nor does it include other locally hired staff who were not in an "exposed role", such as cooks and gardeners.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-57990020
@kapowblamz
Ahh, that would make sense. No less wrong of course.
Bleeding hearts would have us believe that wars can be fought in a civilised manner where morality and dignity are observed and that the rules of engagement are followed implicitly.
Unfortunately, war is a nasty, inhumane, kill or be killed existance and modern war is even more complex as the children in the street smiling are simply part of the enemy subterfuge. Who's a friendly, who's a hostile. It's difficult to tell when there's no uniform to distinguish.
But as usual, those who live free and can speak without fear are the first to criticise those who fought to enable that voice to be heard.
As for betraying those who helped. That is also an unfortunate by product of every war ever fought. It will always be that when an occupying force leaves those who decided to take money in exchange for cooperation, collaboration and assistance are left exposed and in danger.
It doesn't make it right, it reflects badly on the withdrawing forces and their Governments and it adds to the misery and toll of conflict but unfortunately it will continue to happen.
However, there is 1 part that is rather tricky in this area. And that is what may, or may not be, war crimes.
There are legal reasons why there are lots of occasions when what we may think of as a "war" are no such thing. Let's take the historic problems with the IRA as an example (although the Falklands War was never a War).
We refused to declare this as a "war". The reason is (operationally) very simple. We did not wish to give these people the rights afforded to combatants in a "war" (such as the Geneva Convention).
The trouble is we cannot have it both ways. So when (for example) Special Forces make an operational decision to wipe out some IRA Members in Gibraltar, we cannot use "war" as an excuse.
To boil that down, you can arrest. There are occasions when you can say "stop or I'll shoot." But you cannot just keep quiet and shoot to kill...
SAS veteran: ‘Keir Starmer is ripping us apart - there is not a chance I would bear arms for that man’
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/sas-veteran-keir-starmer-is-ripping-us-apart-there-is-not-a-chance-i-would-bear-arms-for-that-man/ar-AA1ziPPF?ocid=msedgntp&pc=W230&cvid=b9971c4ef40c488890b86d8549d641f4&ei=27#fullscreen
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/pursue-this-urgently-whistleblower-case-reveals-whitehall-focus-on-kabul-animal-airlift/ar-AA1zjsE0?ocid=msedgntp&pc=W230&cvid=e119fe47aa884135dd4d8399f2de0dd8&ei=34#fullscreen
On the 1 hand, they will bang on about the "younger generation" being supposedly inferior. And then come out with precisely the sort of bollo they claim to despise in others.
I could never have been a soldier, never mind an elite one. Why? Because I am not the sort of person who could point a gun at, or kill, someone purely on the word of a Commanding Officer. Which is why I would have been totally unfit for any combat or operational role in the Army.
I don't want my Armed Forces, and particularly Special Forces, having some sort of School Assembly about the correct moral stance. I want them to obey Orders.
The Armed Forces are struggling to recruit. Both in relation to numbers and quality.
Because of attitudes precisely like this man. When you are in the Army, in your job, your politics are irrelevant. You follow orders.