Former MLA Brenda Hale has said she is devastated that the progress made in Afghanistan “has all been in vain”.
s Hale, whose husband Mark was killed on duty in the war-torn region in August 2009, said that the 12th anniversary of his death has been “particularly painful” given that Afghanistan has once again been left at the mercy of the Taliban.
And the ex-DUP Assembly member added that what is happening in the troubled country is “just the beginning of a terrible episode” following the withdrawal of US, British and other allied troops.
“I am a widow of the Afghan war, and there’s no VE day for the likes of me, no sense of victory over the oppressor,” said the 53-year-old politician, who represented Lagan Valley between 2011 and 2017.
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“There is just a real sadness and fear for those Afghan nationals who were courageous enough to stand up to the Taliban, and will now feel the full force of terror because they wanted a future of freedom.”
Ms Hale’s 42-year-old husband, a captain in the 2 Rifles battalion, died from injuries sustained in a roadside explosion in Sangin whilst helping to evacuate wounded colleagues on August 13, 2009.
The Bournemouth native was the longest-serving soldier to be killed in Afghanistan.
The couple, who met as teenagers in Ms Hale’s home town, Bangor, in 1985, had been married for 22 years and had two daughters Tori (now 28) and Alix (20).
“I wish I didn’t have to say that this has all been in vain”, she said.
“From the two decades we spent in Afghanistan, I draw some comfort that some terror was kept of the streets of the western world — but now that time has just been turned into a 20-year recruitment drive for the Taliban because they’re now victorious.”
Ms Hale, who was awarded an OBE in 2018 for her political service, added: “My husband was one of 100 soldiers lost during his term; that’s 100 families who, like me, grieve on a daily basis.
“There have been so many milestones Mark has missed, like when the girls left school and went to uni.
“This latest anniversary has been more emotional given the devastating speed in which the Taliban are crushing Afghanistan.
“I’m really worried that the country will now become a melting pot for international militants and that it will be a safe haven of a training ground.
“We didn’t have a sustainable exit strategy, and there is no sense of having made the world a better place.”
The war in Afghanistan claimed nine soldiers from Northern Ireland, including one woman — Corporal Channing Day.
Her mother Rosemary (58) told the Belfast Telegraph that she believes it’s “the unwinnable war”.
The 25-year-old Comber medic with 3 Medical Regiment lost her life alongside colleague Corporal David O’Connor, a Royal Marine, while on her way to give first aid training to Afghan police officers on October 24, 2012.
She had played international football for Northern Ireland at youth level and was also a national gymnastics champion.
Mrs Day, a school cleaner, said she’s struggling to understand the point of sending troops there in the first place.
“Thousands of the Taliban were killed and, despite that, they’ve bounced back and retaken most of the country and now Kabul,” she said.
“What was it all for? The US and UK were there for 20 years and the Taliban have reclaimed it in less than 12 months.”
Mrs Day said Afghanistan has stolen “too many lives” and caused “too much pain for too many families”, including Channing’s father Leslie (60), brother Aaron (29) and sisters Laken (30) and Lauren (33).
“It’s not our fight any more,” she said.
“We’ve done 20 years and I think that’s long enough.
“It’s not just the soldiers who have suffered — it’s all the people who have lost sons, daughters, fathers, mothers, loved ones...
“It’s nine years down the line for us and although nine years might seem an awful long time to some people it’s not to us.”
The grandmother of four said she was behind the governments’ decision to withdraw the allied troops.
“I feel for the women and children and all the innocent people who are caught up in it all but I’m glad the soldiers are coming out and I just hope to God that they don’t have to go back again,” she said.
Amid her profound grief at losing Channing, Mrs Day said she made a conscious decision not to cling on to the anger she knows still haunts many others.
“Whenever Channing was killed I chose to let the anger and frustration go because it doesn’t do any good,” she said.
“The man who killed her was shot and lost his own life so I don’t get angry but I feel disappointed in the whole thing. So many soldiers lost their lives just following orders.”
She added: “Looking back, they probably should never have been there in the first place.”