THE MOTHER of a former rifleman from Bournemouth who lost his life serving in Afghanistan says she is “absolutely devastated” about the recent events in the troubled country.
Jonathon Allott, who attended The Bourne Academy, served with 3 Rifles and died following an IED blast in Helmand Province on March 5, 2010.
In July 2021, Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced that “British troops assigned to Nato’s mission in Afghanistan are now returning home”, 20 years after soldiers were deployed to the country in November 2001.
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However, two months later, and the Taliban have regained over half of the provincial towns in the country, including the capital city Kabul.
Jonathan’s mother Andrea Johnson said: “I haven’t got the words.
“Too many families have been destroyed and the wounded soldiers who come back with arms and legs missing, some with half a face missing, how are they supposed to feel now?
“The ones who have mental issues have been left traumatised by what they went for and now they are supposed to accept that all that hard work and sacrifice was for nothing?”
The majority of British combat troops left Afghanistan in October 2014. Yet, the government announced on Friday August 13 that around 600 UK troops were to be sent to Afghanistan to assist British nationals to leave.
When asked about her thoughts on British troops returning to Afghanistan, Andrea said: “I still haven’t come to terms with Johnny’s death.
“I had accepted that he gave his life and that he had done some good and now I am thinking ‘what was it all for?’
“I can’t get over the fact that there are families of boys and girls who fought for our country and gave their lives for nothing.”
Talking on Sky News on Monday morning, Bournemouth MP Tobias Ellwood said that the West should “hang its head in shame” following Britain’s decision to withdraw troops from Afghanistan.
He added: “The world is a little bit more dangerous now they have taken control of the country.
“Let me stress, do not believe for a second that this will be a conflict free transition to this dictatorship.
“There are many tribes, including Pashtun tribes, that have been caught off guard, they have dispersed.
“They will now rearm and regroup, and they will be supported by countries surrounding Afghanistan, who will now interfere, and a new Northern Alliance will now be created, and that will lead to a full-scale civil war.”
Following a Cobra meeting held on Sunday, Boris Johnson called on countries not to recognise the Taliban as a legitimate government without international agreement.
The UK Parliament is being recalled from its summer recess on Wednesday to debate the situation in Afghanistan.
Tobias Ellwood, a former captain in the British Army and now Chair of the Defence Select Committee, expressed concerns that with ongoing insurgence could lead to a terrorist attack on British soil in the near future.
He added: “The folly of our decision to follow the United States I do not comprehend. This is a massive strategic error and the long-term consequences of this we will regret.
“We are not just gifting this country to the very adversary that we entered Afghanistan in the first place, we are actually now seeing terrorist organisation regroup and turn back to their havens in the country itself.
“I really sadly predict another major hit on the West, the likes of 9/11, because the terrorist organisations would want to bookend our time in Afghanistan to show how futile the last two decades have been.”
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