There is something extraordinarily pointless about the death of six British soldiers today at the fag end of a war which we have lost, the purpose of which is long since vanished. Of course Afghans die daily in this war, which is not meaningless for most of them as it involves ridding their country of an extremely unwelcome and alien occupying force. Each death is a tragedy, but we can be forgiven for being most immediately struck by the deaths of our own.
I will set off for India in a week on the next stage of my research for my biography of Alexander Burnes, including his own terribly wasteful death in the First Afghan War. In 1840 and 41 the British Army fought two pretty reasonable battles in just the area of Helmand where the six new deaths have occurred. Both were similar affairs, with British forces numbering over 2,000, including artillery, cavalry and infantry, defeating much larger forces of Pashtun tribesmen. The artillery was criticial. Both tactical successes had no effect at all on the eventual disastrous result of the British occupation, which achieved nothing but death.
We are in alliance with an Afghan government and army dominated by Northen Alliance warlords, plus the renegade Karzai clan of Pashtuns, fighting on the losing side of a civil war to support a massively corrupt government, which is incompetent only in that we have a total misunderstanding of what it is trying to achieve. The purpose of the Afghan government is to use NATO forces to enforce a temporary monopoly of power by the warlords who control the government. This will enable them as long as it lasts to loot billions in aid money and control the booming heroin trade. Then when NATO leave, so will they with their billions.
Seen in this light, its own light, the Afghan government is extraordinarily efficient. It is only incompetent if you imagine its purpose is to establish western governmental institutions, the rule of law, schools, roads etc. It has no intention of doing any of that, except where a little bit of actual development is required to keep lootable aid funds flowing.
There will be no long – or even medium – term effects of our occupation, except for even greater ingrained hatred of the West in the Afghan population.
I wonder who will be the next soldier to die for that?
“than all applaud you”
No – “then” – all applaud – if he gives a really intelligent reply.
What sane person gives a fuck about 3rd January 1833? Was that the day you crashed your flying saucer? Graduated from Hogwarts?
I remember well when John Reid announced in 2005 that the UK would be deploying troops to Helmand under NATO/ISAF command, i.e. under US command.
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He said, with a straight face, that he expected them to return home in 2009 without a shot being fired. Their mission was to help with the rebuilding of Helmand.
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So… which unit was chosen to lead this peaceful rebuilding mission under the direct control of the US? It was in fact 16 Air Assault Brigade – the British army’s very own storm-troopers, fresh from their blooding in Iraq.
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The US was so impressed with 16AAB’s effectiveness at turning Iraqis into red smears on the ground during Gulf War 2 that US commanders specifically requested 16AAB be deployed to Helmand. Their potential as bricklayers, hod-carriers and plasters must have been obvious from the start.
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Every time news comes out of more British deaths in Afghanistan I remember that violent thug of a politician and his mealy-mouthed lies and just remind myself that it is him and not the ‘Taleban’ who bear the responsibility.
John Pilger finds our children learning lies
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http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article8112.htm
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In our schools, children learn that the US fought the Vietnam war against a “communist threat” to “us”. Is it any wonder that so many don’t understand the truth about Iraq?
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02/05/17 “New Statesman” – – How does thought control work in societies that call themselves free? Why are famous journalists so eager, almost as a reflex, to minimise the culpability of a prime minister who shares responsibility for the unprovoked attack on a defenceless people, for laying waste to their land and for killing at least 100,000 people, most of them civilians, having sought to justify this epic crime with demonstrable lies?
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What made the BBC’s Mark Mardell describe the invasion of Iraq as “a vindication for him”? Why have broadcasters never associated the British or American state with terrorism? Why have such privileged communicators, with unlimited access to the facts, lined up to describe an unobserved, unverified, illegitimate, cynically manipulated election, held under a brutal occupation, as “democratic”, with the pristine aim of being “free and fair”? That quotation belongs to Helen Boaden, the director of BBC News.
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Mary I see that Anders Breivik has been classified criminally insane so he will be put away and the whole thing will be swept under the carpet.
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Have you seen the damage that the Oslo bomb did? The result of a HUGE detonation. It was reported that Breivik had bought a large quantity of fertilizer and this was presumed to have been the cause of the blast. When Breivik’s farm was searched the fertilizer was found but no follows ups have been made public.
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There are big clues in the Oslo bomb that this was not a single man acting alone. The bomb received very little attention due to the overwhelming loss of life but when you start investigating you find there are other reasons why it has been largely ignored by the media.
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This article from the Guardian appears to be nothing more than a propaganda effort to set-up a more convenient ‘truth’. Look how the article is knocking down the more obvious scenarios one by one and replacing them with unrealistic scenarios which have now proved to be entirely in accord with the ‘official narrative’.
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The most tempting and immediate conclusion was that it would be a jihadist group.
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Anyone aware of the news preceding the event will of course be aware that Norway had pissed of Israel royally in statements relating to Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians. Hardly likely to incite a ‘jihadist group’ to murder the children of Norway’s governing class.
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jul/23/norway-attacks-oslo-bombing-youth-camp
as if we didn’t know:
March 7: McClatchy Newspapers: Sheera Frenkel: Israel push on Iran included a steady dose of media leaks
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2012/03/07/141119/israel-push-on-iran-included-a.html
That Pilger piece is a reprint of a 2005 article, hence the low figure he gave of 100,000 killed.
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http://www.johnpilger.com/archive-december/page0e77.html?partid=374
I’m sceptical. With the probable death fighting of many of the external agents wreaking havoc in Syria and we must suppose even more covert if as yet not outed ones in Iran; with the capture of many by the Syrian authorities too – Americans; private security operatives; Israelies; the Al-Quaeda mobile belligerent jetset; Turks; French and the whole ragbag of agitators and special-ops knuckleheads and mercenaries – to suppose that many British nationals have perished or been caught in the territories of the nations they are worming their way around to sow artificial indigenous incendiary dissent, have been caught or perished. This announcement of these deaths comes just as zio-fatigue is sweeping the country and what assurance do we have that these deaths actually took place in Afghanistan at all? I expect there to be more attributed to actions in Afghanistan we’re told assuredly when accounting to their families, if a few or more than a few of our state backed irregulars, sheep-dipped in amongst regular units operating way outside the Afghan border -buy it. Division of marginal forces towards secondary or lower political rather than military objectives is the familiar pitfall that turns losing battles into strategic routs.
Just can’t take the mainstream media, ZBC and Goydian especially at face value, nothing and everything can be make-believe doubly-spun disinformation.
The great effort the BBC make to tell the one sided story.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-10634173
Telling lies about Afghanistan
Posted on March 8, 2012 by Matt
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‘All governments are run by liars and nothing they say should be believed,’ wrote the great radical journalist I.F. Stone many years ago. Stone could have added that some governments lie more than others, and that there are also times when governments
are more prone to manipulation, dishonesty and deceit than usual.
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War has always had a special ability to bring these tendencies to the surface, and yesterday the lies were pouring forth at an alarming rate in response to the deaths of six British soldiers in an IED explosion in Afghanistan.
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/…
http://www.infernalmachine.co.uk/?p=1447
The Colonel commanding the soldiers who died appeared on BBC 4, justifying the war (as I suppose his job requires him to). He trotted out the tired old chestnut that “we are fighting the terrorists in Afghanistan so they can’t blow people up in Britain”.
It’s hard to know where to begin criticising this. If the Taliban are able to blow up a 25-ton Warrior armoured vehicle with armed soldiers inside, in the teeth of an armed occupation of their country, why on earth should they not be able to plan a few attacks in soft, unprotected, civilian Britain? Indeed, why are terrorists thought to require whole nations as “training camps” and “safe havens”? I don’t see why a huge bombing in London could not be entirely planned and carried out by a handful of people in any out of the way place in Britain. Just as I have seen no convincing evidence that anyone had a hand in planning or executing 9/11, other than those who carried out the attacks and died in them. Of course, that is a most disagreeable possibility for our glorious leaders, who desperately needed someone (alive) to take revenge on.
The BBC also peddles the line that our armed forces are in Afghanistan to squeeze Al Qaeda out. That really does fly in the face of common sense, as Al Qaeda had no presence at all in Iraq before we and our glorious American allies destroyed the country and hanged Saddam Hussein. Now Iraq is full of Al Qaeda and similar people – as is Libya, and (if the “international community” gets its way) Syria will be too. The latest news, I see, is that eastern Libya (the area around Benghazi) plans to break away and revert to being Tripolitania. Pity they didn’t do that before overthrowing the relatively stable Qadafi regime.
‘How does thought control work in societies that call themselves free? Why are famous journalists so eager, almost as a reflex, to minimise the culpability of a prime minister who shares responsibility for the unprovoked attack on a defenceless people, for laying waste to their land and for killing at least 100,000 people, most of them civilians, having sought to justify this epic crime with demonstrable lies?
‘What made the BBC’s Mark Mardell describe the invasion of Iraq as “a vindication for him”? Why have broadcasters never associated the British or American state with terrorism? Why have such privileged communicators, with unlimited access to the facts, lined up to describe an unobserved, unverified, illegitimate, cynically manipulated election, held under a brutal occupation, as “democratic”, with the pristine aim of being “free and fair”?’
I’m afraid the answers to those very reasonable and pertinent questions are simpler than we would like, Mary. We “human beings” are the most sophisticated species of ape, but we are still apes. As such, we instinctively cleave to our own tribe and support whatever approximation we can find to “a strong leader”. (“He may be a sonofabitch, but he’s our sonofabitch”). It is bred deep into our genes to trust and support “our own”, and to hate and distrust “the other”. Moreover, it is clear enough to any who are insterested (as all political leaders are) that the best way of quelling dissension and disagreement in the ranks is to unite against an external foe. (“1984” is the textbook case study).
Downwiththatsortofthing, well said, and Anders breivig did it all on his own, never had any help at all from any of his brethren.
@ bonifacecourt, thanks for the poem from Bertholt, brings back memories of times long past. His borther though, afaik, was never a soldiers and died in Port Bou committing suicide, a very interesting family allround and his work will live forever.
Going by the utterings of Vince Cable last night, Government ministers want British soldiers to stay in Afghanistan and take more casualties, they tend to go up at the end of campaigns.
This morning the usual commentators are trying to equate the Taliban with Al Quaeda, despite the fact that warlords and the latter never got on with each other, still we hearing the same unclear aims and objectives, changing as we go along. I felt sorry for the mother who was dragged on to newsnight last night, having to talk to LFI Murphy, Cable and some military bod called Tootal, but she made it perfectly obvious that these young soldiers, on coming home, have to fight another war for housing, NHS treatment, jobs and more. The direct result of lack of social responsibility from the MOD is that ex soldiers end up homeless and on the streets, especially those who cannot cope, who have PTSD’s and other mental stresses.
Finally, if I would want to research a book on the german campaign in Namibia, I would not even contemplate nor would I have to fly to Johannesburg to try and research it, what a ludicrous waste of CO2 that would be. What could there possibly be to research that I cannot find in the Berlin/Hamburg Libraries or online in University libraries? And why Johannesburg, when the campaing would have suggested Windhook as a more suitable place?
@Mike “Probably an accurate assessment, Craig, but not one you’ll ever see on the BBC.”
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Except that BBC Radio 5 interviewed Kim Howells this morning (somewhere around 7:50) and he said pretty much the same thing as Craig. He also gave an example of why the occupation is failing to do much for women’s rights in Afghanistan because they are trying to impose it.
VonRath,
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Interesting. I thought it was odd how it was reported for hours that the men were missing, presumed dead. I wonder what the flight time is from Syria to Afghanistan.
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At the first sign of trouble, i.e. when communication was lost with the patrol, considerable forces would have been dispatched to investigate. They would have secured the immediate area and then gone to attend the vehicle, it’s a standard operational response. They would be cautious attending the vehicle out of fear of secondary devices or ambush but it would not take long to do a sweep of the area as they would want to get to their comrades as a matter of urgency.
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Why the vagueness for so long about their fate? I know shaped charges are powerful but it should have been pretty obvious from body parts, personal arms and equipment that the chaps had all been killed on the spot. Perhaps they were taken alive and killed elsewhere and only discovered some time later.
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Either way experience shows that when politicians and journalists go on an orchestrated media campaign it’s always worth doubting what you are being told to believe.
Last year january 2 week page 7 of the guardian
Taliban offer to educate girls.
look it up.
About the 12th.
Am I an oddball or is that not significant?
If only one of us had the facilities to print a daily.
How about a computer programme that links like
minded bloggers and can then be run off and distributed.
Chienfou: Radio 5 at 7.50 am? Now THERE’s blanket coverage for you…
And from a former minister who is no longer even an MP. It’s funny how he has rediscovered his critical faculties – not to mention a conscience – now that it’s no longer his responsibility.
@Mike – well the program has 3 Million listeners* – hardly an obscure backwater.
My point was that sometimes the BBC DOES broadcast alternative (even dissenting) views. Craig highlighted another example on Newsnight earlier this week (which prompted similar criticsim of the personality while ignoring the message they broadcast)
OT – Scott Horton/Uzbekistan/Nato
http://harpers.org/subjects/NoComment
Of course dissent creeps in, Chienfou. But the broad primetime narrative on the BBC is that all military intervention by the British state is necessary/good.
“I would just like to know what the UK’s war aims really are”
Be America’s buddy. More generally NATO wants to not to lose face: what are a few hundred more soldier’s lives set against that glorious goal.
And the Americans are trapped by their own propoganda into thinking it’s about 9/11. Even though not one Afghan was involved.
The UK are on a self-imposed railway line. One tracked, and you can’t (you’ve told yourself) step off — it’s be America’s buddy till the end.
Mr Murray
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Not to argue with what you said and have been saying about war in Afghanistan and I think even you accepted that there is no immediate solution to Afghan problem. And I think that leaving Afghanistan as it is at present is certainly not a solution at all. When Soviets pulled out civil war flourished and despite being overall successful I do not think that anyone could argue that Taliban represented whole Afghan population. I do not argue that present Afghan government in Kabul is corrupt but there are many millions in the North who did not and will not accept Taliban as legitimate and fight against them will continue. In future I predict that Afghanistan will be used by yet another superpower – China in their quest for controlling important energy routes.
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Afghanistan is yet another reminder of what could happen when a country of many millions is sacrificed to the geopolitical gains of superpowers. I am afraid that in years to come there will be more similarities around the world.
Uzbek,
I think the great mistake is to think that foreigners can – or even should – solve the problems of Afghanistan. Both the Soviets and we have made the long term problems worse.
Mostly very young men but older than many of their victims.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-17295858 The names of the soldiers.
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Some maimed minds and bodies here.
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NATO strike wounds nine schoolgirls in Afghanistan
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
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Nine schoolgirls were injured in a NATO helicopter attack in Afghanistan’s eastern Nangarhar province, an Afghan official said on Wednesday.
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“This morning a school was attacked by a NATO helicopter. Nine children, all girls, and the school’s janitor have been injured,” Ahmad Zia Abdulzai, the Nangarhar provincial government spokesman told AFP.
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“Some of the girls were discharged after receiving treatment but about five of them are still in the hospital,” Abdulzai said, accusing the US-led ISAF force of carrying out the attack.
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An ISAF spokesman said the force was aware of the claim but “we don’t have operational reporting of it.”
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“ISAF officials are looking into these claims,” the spokesman said.
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++++Last week, ISAF conceded that several children died during a bombing raid on February 8 in northeast Kapisa province.++++
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Afghan President Hamid Karzai had condemned the airstrikes and ordered an investigation after saying that eight children were killed.
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The latest report comes amid intense anti-US riots in Kabul that were unleashed after the burning of copies of the Quran by foreign forces at the US-run Bagram military base north of the capital.
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(AFP)
{http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/nato-strike-wounds-nine-schoolgirls-afghanistan}
Courtenay Barnett et al,
Must see; the relevant part starts @ 9:25
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The capacity of psychopaths in rationalization of all events to fit their own psychotic world view, knows no bounds.
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on a more somber note;
Another six families and their extended loved ones join in the grief that has befallen the Afghan war victims on both sides of the divide. Whilst those who perpetrated the crimes of ordering the mass murder, and the fatuous war in Afghanistan are freely going about their business of getting richer without any let or hindrance. The injustice of this all shall never be forgotten by those who shall remember the actual history.
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O/T Anyone experiencing the effects of the solar storm yet?
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Billions of tonnes of superhot gas containing particles released
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-17295337
this is really nice…http://www.jogosdahotwheels.com
Uzbek
there is no immediate solution to Afghan problem.
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The only “Afghan problem” as you put it, is the presence of the marauding invaders in Afghanistan. Hence the solution is, for the invaders to get the hell out of Afghanistan, and leave the Afghans to sort it out among themselves.
end-of
Mr Murray
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I certainly agree with you.
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But as it happens Afghanistan is torn by over 30 years of civil war. Many would probably agree that first step towards peace building is bringing some kind of order to Afghanistan, not the one based on medival norms or ethnic cleansing and not the one based on clan or tribal relations but also not the one based on corrupt illegitimacy. After NATO pulls out all these problems in cope with power vacuum will surface again and it is certain that Afghanistan will be back to civil war and who knows whether more or less Afghans will die in further civil war than during decade of occupation.
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On my view the biggest mistake NATO did in Afghanistan is mixed up legitimacy issue initially. For NATO legitimacy is government elected by popular vote that is capable of providing law and order. For Afghans legitimacy is based on clan-tribes relationship with elders (more often war lords) enjoying more authority than distant Kabul based government. NATO should have involved all these questionable elders (war lords) as well as more moderate pro-Taliban supporters in governing of Afghanistan and only then by natural selection illuminate weakers and consolidate power in hands of stronger and only then demand mandate from them based on popular vote.
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Those (including me ) who initially thought that democracy was possible in Afghanistan were mistaken. I am on other hand now seriously concerned with whether or not democracy is possible in Uzbekistan or Turkmenistan any time soon.
@ Passerby
“The only “Afghan problem” as you put it, is the presence of the marauding invaders in Afghanistan. Hence the solution is, for the invaders to get the hell out of Afghanistan, and leave the Afghans to sort it out among themselves.
end-of”
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No doubt, easy solution from someone who lives thousand miles from Afghanistan. I am not questioning negative aspects of invaders’ behaviour and possibly motives, but it is certain that back to pre 2011 Afghanistan is not very much convenient for (at least) some Afghans (particularly in the North) and for some of their neighbours (also in the North).