Green Deputy Leader, Adrian Ramsay, is joining authors and academics in Norwich to call for the withdrawal of UK troops from Afghanistan – a move the Green Party supports.
Adrian will be attending a public meeting on the future of
Afghanistan at the Friends Meeting House in Norwich on 23 October, and will be speaking alongside Jonathan Neale, author of books on Afghanistan and Vietnam, and Carol Turner, Peace Studies lecturer at Bradford University.
The tragic killing of aid worker Gayle Williams and the recent sharp rise in British troop fatalities has focused international attention on the increasing violence in Afghanistan.
This month, a leaked report revealed that US intelligence agencies believe the Afghan war is in a 'downward spiral'. The security situation has deteriorated rapidly in the past three years, despite the deployment of more US and UK troops.
Adrian says: "Tens of thousands of people - civilians and soldiers - have lost their lives in Afghanistan, yet the country is no closer to peace or democracy. The idea that democracy could be restored through military assaults proved to be wrong, yet it remains a central plank of the failed US strategy.
"We need to help Afghanistan re-build itself, but we can only do this by investing in economic reconstruction, training programmes and good governance – not endless warfare. The United Nations – not the United States and UK - should take the lead in restoring a peaceful democracy and ending the downward spiral of violence."