“When is a war unwinnable?”

Date: Thursday 5th November

Time: 7pm

Location: Kirwan Theatre

When then United States of America invaded Afghanistan in 2001, the world was in shock after the September 11th attacks. While nations may not have agreed with the aggressive policy of the US, little was done to oppose them. However, it soon became clear this was not a straight-forward mission. As the body bags started coming home and the legitimacy of the invasion was called into question, public support diminished.

Now, the conflict of our era drags on towards a second decade of death and suffering, and only the USA still maintain that their troops should remain in Afghanistan, with majorities in all other countries favouring a withdrawal as rapidly as possible. In recent years we have seen a change in fortunes as the number of troops in the country was rapidly increased.

Thanks to US and NATO military strength, the Taliban have been pushed back and democracy is starting to take hold. What would happen if these troops pull out? Is Afghanistan capable of self-governance without slipping back into a mire of drug trafficking and human rights abuses? Do we have a duty to protect the Afghani people and the fragile state which we helped to establish? To determine whether troops should remain in Afghanistan, it is now necessary to answer two questions; do the US troops have a right to be there in the first place, and can the country and its people now survive if they do pull out?