LONDON, 01 August 2021, (TON): A former head of the UK armed forces has called on Prime Minister Boris Johnson to outline the country’s strategy for Afghanistan as the war-torn nation slides into further conflict amid the Taliban’s advance.

Gen. Lord Richards, former chief of defense staff, said “he is fed up with the government’s lack of planning for the next stage of supporting Afghanistan, where he served as the commander of coalition forces between 2006 and 2007. He lamented the West’s defeat in the country.

With Western forces lined up to be fully removed by Sept. 11, Richards warned of the potential creation of an ungoverned space that could be exploited by terror groups for the planning of atrocities such as the 9/11 attacks.

He told the BBC that he takes a share of the blame for the West’s calamitous performance in Afghanistan, but that while NATO military force, chiefly from the US and Britain, largely achieved what was expected, politicians had failed to give Afghanistan sufficient economic and political support following the 2001 removal of the Taliban from power.

Richards said “we have invested, as a country, as the West and the US particularly — 20 years of time and much money and many lives in Afghanistan.”

He added “I’m getting a little bit fed up that I’ve not heard from our government, indeed from the prime minister, as to why we have reached this nadir. It’s really not good enough, and I would like to hear from the government, I think it’s a prime ministerial obligation now, as to why we’ve got into this position and what we are now going to do about it.”