Gordon Brown: The West Is “Sleep- walking Into an Historic Afghanistan Crisis”

“Sleepwalking into an historic Afghanistan crisis” is how Gordon Brown characterized the situation today in an op-ed for the Times Red Box. Brown called on the global community to commit to the “largest humanitarian response ever agreed for a single nation,” warning that the country is “on the brink of economic and social collapse.” Brown said that more than half the Afghan population is facing extreme hunger, including a million children who are at risk of starving to death. By “standing aside since the August withdrawal of British and US troops and the subsequent Taliban takeover, the West was fostering conditions for “the exploitation of grievances and anti-western resentment that may come back to haunt us.” Brown warned that the crisis could be felt as far away as Europe if thousands were faced with the choice of starvation or emigration.