An MSP and former soldier who lost his best friend in Afghanistan told a protest of his disgust over the chaotic Allied withdrawal from the country.
Paul Sweeney, whose best friend Bobby Hetherington was killed in Helmand, said there had been so much sacrificed by so many and it now felt in vain.
Sweeney was addressing a protest in Glasgow, organised by the Afghan Human Rights Foundation and the Glasgow Stop the War Coalition.
Hundreds of people held up placards demanding “no more war” and “Afghan refugees welcome here”.
He said: “I felt numb watching the scenes from Afghanistan.
“One of my best friends was killed in 2013, blown apart by an IED in Helmand and we have to question what was it for?
"I have been speaking to friends who have been in Afghanistan, who have sacrificed so much, who have mental health problems and life changing injuries and they feel that none of it was worth it.
"They feel rage and disgust and they feel it viscerally. And it has been a betrayal of the people of Afghanistan who had so much hope for progress.”
The protest was calling for an end to UK foreign invasions and for our country to take more than the 20,000 Afghan refugees the Westminster government has pledged to support over a five year resettlement plan.
Sweeney, who is an ex-army reservist said: “That is a shameful number given our direct role in causing the problem.”
Bobby, 25, from Edinburgh, died with fellow soldiers Corporal William Savage and Fusilier Samuel Flint when their Mastiff armoured vehicle hit an improvised explosive device on a routine patrol in Helmand.
Sweeney said: “A lot of people like Bobby lost their lives unnecessarily. Thousands of Afghans died so needlessly.”
He said the UK must intervene with pressure to bring about peaceful resolution and progressive infrastructures to countries like Afghanistan without resorting to warfare.
He did not support the indefinite presence of Nato forces in the country but said the “uncontrolled and catastrophic management” of the withdrawal was calamitous.
And he said now thousands of Afghans, like interpreters, who supported and protected the Allies have now been left behind to face retaliation from the Taliban.
Mohammad Asif, chairman of the Foundation and an Afghan refugee himself, believes the people of Scotland will stand with them to condemn what is happening in his country.
He said “The aim of the protest is firstly to express our anger about the way things went in Afghanistan.
“Secondly, we are calling on the international community to put pressure on the Taliban, and to get assurances that the future government will not be the same as one before 2001.”
The crowd cheered as he called Tony Blair and George W Bush “war criminals “.
He demanded there be no cap on Afghan refugees coming to the Uk.
He said: “ We have a moral responsibility to give a safe home to the Afghans displaced by a war waged by the UK and America.”
Sadiq Shah, 24, an Afghan asylum seeker who fled the Taliban to Scotland last year held aloft the national flag now banned in his former home by the new regime.
Shah who comes from a village near the Afghan Pakistani border, said attacks from the Taliban in his region were relentless.
He said: “People don’t want to leave but they have no choice. I saw how the Taliban killed people. Now Afghanistan is in their hands and the American and British governments don’t care. The betrayal is disgusting. “
STUC Deputy General Secretary Dave Moxham He was at the protest to show the solidarity of more than 530000 Scottish workers with the people of Afghanistan.
He called on the UK to open its doors to the Afghans now fleeing for their lives.
“This was a botched and horrific withdrawal. The response of the UK and US Governments to the complete failure of their strategy and withdrawal from Afghanistan requires a far more urgent and wide scale response in support of refugees than is currently proposed.”
Jonathon Shafi of The Stop the War coalition asked the protesters to ponder with him “where is Tony Blair?
To roars from protestors of “no more wars refugees are welcome here”, he said:” never again should we be sending out troops into these foreign interventions”.
