Six troops die in ‘cowardly’ attack.

Four hundred and four soldiers have now lost their lives fighting this unwinnable war. A further 5000 have been left badly wounded or maimed. And for what? 

“They are fighting to reduce terrorism on our streets.”

What irrational bullshit this is. Throwing our weight about has made us more likely to be attacked. The Iraq fiasco created even more terrorists and helped Al Quaida gain a foothold where it previously had none. The images from Iraq and Afghanistan have helped radicalise British citizens so the terror comes mainly from within. Any successes in Afghanistan have rebounded onto ungovernable Pakistan which is now a basket case....with nuclear weapons.

“We are helping build democracy” 

This is laughable when one considers the role of women...of corruption...of warlords....or the irreconcilable differences between the tribes in Afghanistan...and election fixing.

“We are training Afghan security services to take over.”

At a cost of nearly $12bn per year funded by the US one third of the nation are being trained. The others are having nothing to do with it. The US are walking away in a couple of years and then what? Without that vast amount of money the structure will collapse. In the meantime, several of these ‘trained’ Afghan troops have taken the opportunity to murder US and other troops.

“Our strategic objectives are all being met.”

We hear this inane meaningless bullshit from so many senior military bods and politicians. The interesting comments come from those who have worked in Afghanistan and have since returned. They sing a very different tune of how ‘objectives’ are reinvented to suit the situation. Of failure compounded by failure. Of clearing areas during the daytime knowing the Taliban will return at night. Of being bailed out by US troops. Of turning blind eyes to Afghan corruption. Of going through the motions.

We have told the Taliban that we plan to leave in 2014. Imagine if we had said to Hitler, “We are going to give it our best shot ‘till 1942?” As a ‘strategy’ it is not worth a bucketful of warm spit.

The latest catastrophe has been labelled ‘a cowardly attack’ by Defence Minister Hammond. Bombers and bomb attacks are frequently so labelled by incredibly brave Ministers from the safety of their offices. Anyone who has seen ‘The Attack on Algiers’ will have a different view. Anyone with a brain will look at the increasing use of unmanned drone attacks to blow hundreds and hundreds of innocent civilians to smithereens (plus the odd Taliban) and think “Now that is what I call cowardly.”

Let’s surprise them and leave now. And save some lives. 

Theirs and ours.