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?
Well put Craig. As a Yorkshireman I am desparately sad for this tragic waste of young lives. What exasperates me is the inane nonsense trotted out by Cameron, the media and, worst of all, my fellow citizens who appear to completely accept the need for these young men and women to give their lives ‘to protect our national security’ as Cameron whined today! As you have explained before Afghanis have no intention nor means to threaten our nation. All threats to our national security, as i see it, emanate from the imperialist militarism foisted upon middle east nations by a coalition of the misguided NATO alliance
I had exactly the same thought. There is nothing incompetent about the Karsai government — their goal was to accumulate as much money as the West was willing to give them. They will retire comfortably in exile when this is all over.
It appears our soldiers who are dying there are doing exactly what they’re supposed to do – die. Then we can say to the Yanks that we’re doing our bit, and the US administration can pacify their fearful masses who are starting to have doubts. They’re not just over there on their own, “No – look! – there are British soldiers dying there too. So carry on praying and saluting the flag, and stop with all these unpatriotic, anti-American, military hating communist questions already.”
I find it puzzling that you condemn the alien occupation of Afghanistan and its corrupt puppet government that serves the clear purpose of incorporating Afghanistan into the New World Order for the benefit of the corporate oligarchy that controls the US and its tributaries, yet you support the much greater alien invasion and occupation of Britain through mass immigration, a racial, religious and cultural transformation the like of which the nation has never before experienced, and one that is overwhelmingly opposed by the great majority of the British people: an invasion and occupation facilitated by successive corrupt puppet governments acting in the corporate interest to drive down wages, drive up the profits of property developers and the contractors providing the additional taxpayer-funded infrastructure that this invasion necessitates.
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Are we to understand that you are a soft globalist, which is to say an advocate of globalization by stealth and manipulation, even if that means the destruction of the nations of Europe through mass migration, but oppose violent integration as in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, etc.? Or is there some other explanation of the apparent contradictions in your political position?
Canspeccy,
No, I just think they’ve brought in lots of very hot women.
No? No, what?
No one’s questioning the sexual potential of immigrants, or personal attractiveness other merits.
So why not answer the question?
O/T Little Ms Chloe Smith does not know her **** from her elbow. She thinks Sunderland is near Bolton.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tyne-17292533
🙂
Thanks for this poignant rememberance of Afghan history, and todays wasted lives of six young soldiers, comparable to the past.
This unfortunate twinning todays, not in my name, I hasten to add, just underlines the poignancy of their death.
http://www.edp24.co.uk/news/politics/historic_day_as_norfolk_armed_forces_covenant_is_signed_1_1230479
You made me smile, again Mary, Chloe is still learning, and geography is not everyone’s strong point, she’s hobblin’ round Norwich on crutches, getting boed about her bosses plans for the NHS privatisation.
Here’s something to compare with Craig’s comments. This is the official justification for continuing the war in Afghanistan.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/telegraph-view/9128804/The-right-way-to-leaveAfghanistan.html
Presumably the DT had the piece vetted, or even drafted, by someone in the No10/FCO labyrinth. It brings to mind Orwell’s propaganda slogan in 1984: “the war with (insert current enemy) will soon be within measurable distance of its end”.
As a prol myself, I would just like to know what the UK’s war aims really are, for only the credulous could accept the DT’s explanation. Perhaps it’s some kind of contest with China, or Russia? Or is it to show toughness to Iran by proxy, or to assuage fears amongst other key middle east allies? Sure as hell, “fighting in the mountains and valleys of Afghanistan” can have little in practice to do with “making the streets of Britain safe”. I think we should be told.
“I would just like to know what the UK’s war aims really are”
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Isn’t the answer rather obvious? Pipelines, resources, and the opium trade, plus the establishment of military bases for the projection of power against neighboring coutries: Russia, China, and Iran, and for the exercise of control over central Asian energy, so that a squeeze can, if necessary, be put on China.
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It’s called globalization, the ultimate aim being to subject all countries to regimes owned by corporate interests. And Craig Murray is for it. Or at least he’s not saying he’s against it.
Portillo is taking on melanie Phillips on radio 4, just now, the resident siren is up for murderous talk, again.
Remember her calling peace activists on the Mavi Marmara ‘terrorists’ who got what they deserved.
She is one woman I would like to put in prison, just for her examples she set for Anders Breivig. I would feed her Pam Geller.
Any chance of feedback on this point re the 1840’s AFGHANISTAN escapades particularly what records are there that exist which identify who the individuals who were in our forces were? Are there records of their actual I.D’s? Were they actually UK born individuals? I wrote to the Imperial War Museum some time ago and got nowhere. What Memorials if eny exist to them? Are there any? Were they volunteer forces or were they somehow conscripted? We have the First World War Annual Memorial events but for those who perished decades before just a silence nothing. I understood that very many thousands perished.
This afternoon I have been listening to my CD of PJ Harvey’s anti-war songs.
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These are the lyrics of the title song.
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“Let England Shake”
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The West’s asleep. Let England shake,
weighted down with silent dead.
I fear our blood won’t rise again.
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England’s dancing days are done.
Another day, Bobby, for you to come home
& tell me indifference won.
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Smile, smile Bobby, with your lovely mouth.
Pack up your troubles, let’s head out
to the fountain of death
& splash about, swim back and forth
& laugh out loud,
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until the day is ending,
& the birds are silent in the branches,
& the insects are courting in the bushes,
& by the shores of lovely lakes
heavy stones are falling.
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This is quite a strident piece but there are more gentle, poignant ones too.
some news from libya..
http://libyasos.blogspot.com/2012/03/exiled-libyan-monarchy-shamelessly.html
“No, I just think they’ve brought in lots of very hot women.”
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True. Wonderfully a great deal of this crumpet are terrific SNP activists – with their dads, and uncles and aunties and sons and sons-in-law and brothers and sisters and cousins and friends and acquaintances of friends, and some people they know slightly, and this person they met the other night, and on and on. Scottish independence is going to be the great Muslim achievement. You see there is this
distaste for the old Caliphate in London. Allah akhbar. Saor alba.
But the short answer to Rob’s question about UK war aims in Afghanistan and why British soldiers are dying there was perhaps best put by Rudyard Kipling:
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After his son was killed on the Western Front, at Loos, in September 1915, Kipling wrote:
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If any question why we died
Tell them, because our fathers lied.
Nevermind If that’s Moral Maze you are referring to, I avoid it like the plague in case I catch a sound from Melanie Phillips.
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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. That awful woman Pamela Geller in America is thus let off.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-14259989
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PS Nice photo of him there in his Masonic gear.
FROM THE BBC:-
” The fatal bombing of six British soldiers in their Warrior armoured vehicle in Afghanistan was a “cowardly attack”, Defence Secretary Phillip Hammond has said. He also said it would not shake the UK’s resolve to complete its mission.”
So – what is the use of drones killing civilians, non-combatant women, children and people attending wedding parties to be termed – if not very the same – “cowardly attack”. Is it not these types of attacks which have galvanised the Afghan spirit of resisitance? Is it likely that British soldiers will fight for the “mission” as these atacks increease in 2012 – or – more likely that the spirit of resistance will increase within the hearts and minds of the Afghan resistance fighters?
Anyway – what – pray tell – is the UK’s mission in Afghanistan at this stage?
See Craig’s buggered off refusing to say whether he’s for globalization by virtually all means other than killing Afghans, etc. or not. Well, then, the answer’s seems pretty clear, and I’ll quit wondering about it.
did you know valerie amos, as dfid boss, lobbied african countries to gather support for the iraq war?
I did indeed I even mention it either in Murder in Samarkand or in The Catholic Orangemen
Probably an accurate assessment, Craig, but not one you’ll ever see on the BBC. They’re silent too on the threat of civil war in Libya, where this week the oil-rich east (important epithet, that) announced its ambitions to become a sovereign state. At least the BBC had the decency to hint at the destruction of Iraqi infrastructure; they’ve ignored the same in Libya. The LibDems, I’m afraid, deserve nothing but opprobrium and electoral wipe-out for allowing that to happen without a murmur. There’s nothing like power to recalibrate conscience.
And now we’re onto Syria – but Russia and China are having none of it. And thank fuck for that.
Russia Today is saying that Western special forces have been in there from the start, supplying weapons, launching guerilla attacks, while the Syrian Free Army has not been averse to killing civilians for PR gain. Shades of Racak there, perhaps. Can we believe the claims of Russia Today? Can we believe the claims on the BBC?
Given what’s happened over the last 10-12 years, I really don’t know anymore.
Chin up Craig. Keep the light burning. It’s always better than cursing the darkness.
Mike,
The oil-rich east DID NOT announce its ambitions to become a sovereign state. It proposed that it should run its own affairs apart from foreign policy, the army and oil resources, which would be left to a federal government in Tripoli.
Courtenay Barnett: Good point you bring up. I hate to say it, but planting bombs to blow up convoys of foreign troops occupying your country is hardly the act of a “coward”. You’ve got to dig up the road along a pre-planned route of the enemy. They’re not just risking blowing themselves up while planting the explosives, or being bombed from the air at the time. They’ve got to wait in sight of the enemy to carry out the attack, and risk what comes afterwards.
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Besides immediate death in the battle, there’s also the very good chance of being spirited away to some black-site gulag, never to be heard from again. Maybe some grim torture prison of a compliant dictator, to extract a full confession of whatever we want to hear. Or turned over to their own Vichy-style government for same.
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No, such things are cowardly. Far more manly, brave and patriotic, is to press buttons while sitting safely at 40,000 feet, killing “suspected militants” below. At the absolute least to know you have the full air support of same while on the ground. Or to sit in an office in Langley, Virginia, and sip coffee while operating a drone killing device. No less brave than any video game player.
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If they kill us, they are terrorists and cowards. If we kill them, we’re defending Freedom an’ Democracy against murderous, evil militants. We’re always on the side of the angels, they’re simply bloodthirsty monsters. Not a single one of “our boys” is less than a hero. Not even one jackass, thug or arse in the entire army – and let’s be honest, those “A-rabs”, those not-like-us-types over there aren’t really human at all.
CanSpeccy you will be glad to hear that the influx of migrants into UK in the last decade has paid off and saved Britain’s bacon. There has been a baby boom, with most mums non-native. Now the problem with the UK, as we all know, is that there are too many white people. White people are lazy, workshy and don’t breed. Hence Britain was in danger of becoming a geriatric slum, like future Japan and Germany, with not enough young taxpayers to buy the zimmer frames for the gerries. Now we learn that Britain in 2035 will have 23% of its population over 65, while Germany has a whopping 33%! As so often in the past, Britain has been saved by immigration.
If nobody joined the army, there would be fewer army deaths. A lad from my neighbourhood joined up last month, DEMANDING to go to A’stan. He looked forward to ‘seeing action’.
The amazing thing about Canspeccy’s laments over immigration to the UK, is that he lives in Canada, whose native people’s wealth he not only pillages but whose land he pollutes. And Canada is a country which really has been put through
“.. a racial, religious and cultural transformation the like of which the nation has never before experienced…”
We are not talking here of Fish and Chip shops being changed into curry houses but of the systematic looting of the resources which undoubtedly belonged to the millions of natives living here until elbowed aside by the sort of clowns who, nowadays, are engaged in the mining of the oil sands.
So disgraceful has been the treatment of the First Nations of Canada that Canspeccy and his like seems to be blithely unaware that other people have cultures too and that their’s, the vulgar Hollywood/Westminster culture of imperialism is parked on top of Canada’s like a leaking septic tank by the side of a lake which has been dying since the white man arrived.
@ Stephen,
” did you know valerie amos, as dfid boss, lobbied african countries to gather support for the iraq war?”
What else was she supposed to do – that was her job.
Canspeccy: I find it puzzling that you condemn the alien occupation of Afghanistan and its corrupt puppet government that serves the clear purpose of incorporating Afghanistan into the New World Order for the benefit of the corporate oligarchy that controls the US and its tributaries, yet you support the much greater alien invasion and occupation of Britain through mass immigration, a racial, religious and cultural transformation…
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wYoLQc-x5g
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Chris2: The amazing thing about Canspeccy’s laments over immigration to the UK, is that he lives in Canada, whose native people’s wealth he not only pillages but whose land he pollutes.
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He doesn’t just live there, he migrated to Canada! A land with “socialized medicine” and one which seems to be the antithesis of all his “libertarian” free-market prescriptions.
Courtenay Barnett seems to applaud Afghan resistance to British aggression, but wasn’t he on a recent ‘Malvinas’ thread, deploring British resistance to Argentinian aggresssion? Cognitive dissonance? Either way, a lot of weeping mums.
@Craig Murray
Good point, the Afghan govt is in fact a terrific success! The ‘law of predictable consequence’ says that you get what you really wanted. The American shambles in Iraq suits Israel nicely. Ten years ago, heroin production from the Burma Golden Triangle fell drastically, due to regional politics. At the same time, the Taliban regime in A’stan disastrously
reduced heroin production. Cue one war – and today – whew! – A’stan is producing 90% of our precious smack. With a nice little sideline in fucking up Russia, which has 2 million
addicts, thanks to ‘Air America’.
Here is a poem by Berthold Brecht, written during the German involvement in the Spanish Civil War, with my own prosaic translation.
*Mein Bruder war ein Flieger
Eines Tages bekam er eine Kart
Er hat seine Kiste eingepackt
Und südwärts ging die Fahrt.
*Mein Bruder ist ein Eroberer
Unserm Volke fehlt’s an Raum
Und Grund und Boden zu kriegen, ist
Bei uns alter Traum.
*Der Raum, den mein Bruder eroberte
Liegt im Guadarramamassiv
Er ist lang einen Meter achtzig
Und einen Meter fünfzig tief.
* * * * * * *
*My brother was an airman
One day he got a map
He packed his bags
And headed south.
*My brother is a conqueror
Our nation needs more space
And grabbing land and ground
Is an old dream of ours.
*The space that my brother conquered
Lies in the Guadarrama Massif.
It measures one meter eighty
By one meter fifty deep.
@boniface goncourt
“Courtenay Barnett seems to applaud Afghan resistance to British aggression, but wasn’t he on a recent ‘Malvinas’ thread, deploring British resistance to Argentinian aggresssion? Cognitive dissonance? Either way, a lot of weeping mums.”
Nice “escape post” – when you include the backdoor comment – ” Either way, a lot of weeping mums”
But -let us consider ” Cognitive dissonance”.
If I say ( as I did) that the Afghans have a right to defend their homeland – just as every British citizen has a right to defend his/her homeland (or any other national group around the world – has to defend their homeland) – why is this not a perfectly honest observation?
I did say about the Las Malvinas/Falklands looming crisis that there is historical context. I explained what I meant. I made specific reference to 3rd January, 1833 – and I stated what happened.
In all that I have said – where have I been illogical and/or less than reasoned in the honest questions that I have raised?
NOW – boniface goncourt – give a good answer – maybe we will than all applaud you.