Should British troops stay in Afghanistan?

The war in Afghanistan was sold to us on the basis of 'self defence'. But that logic has now faded. So it it time to pull out?

The war in Afghanistan was sold to us on a "simple and compelling premise", says Jonathan Freedland in The Guardian. "It was an act of self-defence, in response to 9/11. Al Qaida was the enemy, it had taken root in Afghanistan, and so it was legitimate to hit back." But that logic has now faded.

Osama Bin Laden's men have been chased into Pakistan or scattered around the globe. So now the objective is to defeat the Taliban and turn this "wild" country into "stable, prosperous Sweden".

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Emily Hohler
Politics editor

Emily has worked as a journalist for more than thirty years and was formerly Assistant Editor of MoneyWeek, which she helped launch in 2000. Prior to this, she was Deputy Features Editor of The Times and a Commissioning Editor for The Independent on Sunday and The Daily Telegraph. She has written for most of the national newspapers including The Times, the Daily and Sunday Telegraph, The Evening Standard and The Daily Mail, She interviewed celebrities weekly for The Sunday Telegraph and wrote a regular column for The Evening Standard. As Political Editor of MoneyWeek, Emily has covered subjects from Brexit to the Gaza war.

Aside from her writing, Emily trained as Nutritional Therapist following her son's diagnosis with Type 1 diabetes in 2011 and now works as a practitioner for Nature Doc, offering one-to-one consultations and running workshops in Oxfordshire.