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I don’t know what the answer is to the current problems of Afghanistan, and I seriously doubt that anyone has in reality. If they do, they have signally failed in getting the message across to the average man in a British street.
Because of its location, the area has been the centre of strife of one sort or another for centuries during which hill tribesmen would descend upon invaders and others they took issue with and kick their butts. Even in Victorian times during ‘The Great Game’, British forces were to learn just how warlike and deadly the tribesmen could be.
Since the 1960s the country has been effectively in continuous civil war in addition to being subject to the interventions of the Soviet Union in 1979 and a US invasion in 2001 that did away with the Taliban regime and which was then replaced by NATO troops acting as the so-called International Security Assistance Force of which British troops were a part. We now have around 9,000 British troops in Afghanistan and, since 2001, 207 of them have been killed.
Gordon Brown has just been on his fourth visit to the area in a year and has suggested that yet more British troops will be sent to Afghanistan. He has also promised more unmanned surveillance aircraft, better protected vehicles and 200 trained specialists to deal with roadside bombs. It remains to be seen whether these promises will be fulfilled.
My father was in army bomb disposal in WWII and, like any other serving soldier, accepted the risk that he might be killed at any moment. But he had a very clear idea of what he was fighting for, which was freedom from Nazi oppression. But does any serving soldier unfortunate enough to be sent to Afghanistan have much idea of what that is all about? I very much doubt it.
They probably don’t have a much better idea as to what it’s all about than does the average man in a British street. And it is my view that the average man in a British street wants to see our troops pulled out as soon as possible and regardless of anything Gordon Brown or any of the other politicians might have to say on the subject.
And I agree. Don’t increase troop numbers, just pull them out!
.
I don’t know what the answer is to the current problems of Afghanistan, and I seriously doubt that anyone has in reality. If they do, they have signally failed in getting the message across to the average man in a British street.
Because of its location, the area has been the centre of strife of one sort or another for centuries during which hill tribesmen would descend upon invaders and others they took issue with and kick their butts. Even in Victorian times during ‘The Great Game’, British forces were to learn just how warlike and deadly the tribesmen could be.
Since the 1960s the country has been effectively in continuous civil war in addition to being subject to the interventions of the Soviet Union in 1979 and a US invasion in 2001 that did away with the Taliban regime and which was then replaced by NATO troops acting as the so-called International Security Assistance Force of which British troops were a part. We now have around 9,000 British troops in Afghanistan and, since 2001, 207 of them have been killed.
Gordon Brown has just been on his fourth visit to the area in a year and has suggested that yet more British troops will be sent to Afghanistan. He has also promised more unmanned surveillance aircraft, better protected vehicles and 200 trained specialists to deal with roadside bombs. It remains to be seen whether these promises will be fulfilled.
My father was in army bomb disposal in WWII and, like any other serving soldier, accepted the risk that he might be killed at any moment. But he had a very clear idea of what he was fighting for, which was freedom from Nazi oppression. But does any serving soldier unfortunate enough to be sent to Afghanistan have much idea of what that is all about? I very much doubt it.
They probably don’t have a much better idea as to what it’s all about than does the average man in a British street. And it is my view that the average man in a British street wants to see our troops pulled out as soon as possible and regardless of anything Gordon Brown or any of the other politicians might have to say on the subject.
And I agree. Don’t increase troop numbers, just pull them out!
.
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