LORD ASHDOWN AND THE AFGHAN WAR

That this House notes the article by Lord Ashdown of Norton-sub-Hamdon in The Times newspaper on 16 November 2012 concerning Afghanistan; further notes that in Lord Ashdown's opinion we cannot pretend that there is any more to do in Afghanistan, that the urgent priority is to get out, that it is not worth wasting one more life in Afghanistan, that all we can achieve has now been achieved and that allwe might have achieved, if we had done things differently, has been lost; further notes that the only outcome of staying any longer will be more deaths of British troops for no purpose; agrees with Lord Ashdown in his assessment of the pointlessness of keeping troops in Afghanistan any longer; and therefore calls on the Government to begin an immediate withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan with the last troops to be home by Christmas.