Tobias Ellwood, a Conservative MP and the Chairman of the defence select committee, recommended that Britain reopen its embassy in Kabul and engage in talks with the Taliban.
Mr. Ellwood said in a piece for the Telegraph that he is “far from” being a “Taliban appeaser” and mentioned that his brother was murdered by Islamic extremists 20 years ago.
However, Mr. Ellwood, a lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserve, claimed that on a recent visit to Afghanistan, he “witnessed unreported compromises the war-exhausted nation is currently willing to accept.”
Improved security, free travel and the removal of pervasive corruption, according to Mr. Ellwood, who also noted that the black market opium trade is “seemingly gone.”
He said: “This war-torn nation has not experienced relative peace like this since the 1970s.
“This, to put it mildly, was not what I was expecting.
“After a dozen visits to the country urging Nato and the UN to do exactly what the Taliban have now achieved, I had to grapple with the harsh reality of the West’s strategic missteps.”
It is time for Britain to “rethink and re-engage” with Afghanistan and the Taliban, according to the Bournemouth East MP.
He said: “The first step is reopening our embassy.
“The second is to get real. Afghanistan’s future could be war again or life as a Chinese vassal.”
After NATO withdrew from Afghanistan almost two years ago, the Taliban retook control of the nation.
The Taliban reinstated regulations prohibiting women from working and banning girls from attending school.
In addition to banning women’s beauty parlours, the Taliban added regulations forbidding women from being in public places like parks and gyms.
Mr Elwood said: “The British Embassy is closed for political rather than security reasons.
“Of course, this boycott endures because of the Taliban’s regressive laws against women’s education and employment.
“If the West continues to sulk we could be making another blunder which pushes the nation to a fiscal cliff, potentially igniting another cycle of instability, terrorism and mass migration.
“A more pragmatic strategy is needed. The Taliban’s restrictions on women’s rights may well serve as a negotiation tool for shared understanding. But such a possibility will remain unknown until we wake up.”
