Martin Bell is a former BBC reporter and a former Member of the British parliament.

At a recent forum on peace and security issues organized by Colchester Quakers, Martin Bell had this to say about his country’s part in the Afghanistan war:

“I think we British have gone AWOL from our history. There is not a regiment in the British army – not one – not the old regiments or the new merged regiments that does not have Iraq, Mesopotamia and Afghanistan on its battle honours over and over and over again and we never  seem to learn the lessons.
Baroness Helena Kennedy described [former Prime Minister Tony] Blair’s Downing Street as a ‘history free zone.’ You might like to consider the consequences of that for the soldiers of 16 Air Assault Brigade up the road because they are the ones who pay the price.
We British are now fighting our fourth Afghan war. We might like to reflect on who won the other three.
We didn’t.”

– From the Friend of London May 21, 2010