We have all been watching todays dreadful news about yesterdays events in Afghanistan. Does this not seem a bit surreal as most of us get on with normal day to day living whilst servicemen are losing their lives at such an alarming rate in a country that NO-ONE in all of history has ''subdued.''
Where will it end? How will it end? I cant see any good coming out of this. What do others think?
The news has been dreadful and as mrs777's son may well be out there next year, these are worrying times.
I was a firm advocate of our troops going out there as it was the only way to try and stop the war lords of the Taliban, setting up their training camps.
The Taliban are the wests enemy and their aims are quite simple...to destroy us and our way of life. They must never succeed but....will that ever happen?
Increasingly I have been less optimistic of the aims to this war. Where this war is going or how or if it will ever end.
Seeing those soldiers coming home in coffins seems a pointless way to die, but war is never pretty. They join up knowing the risks and are taught to kill. Not nice but a fact of life.
I am in two minds now as to where I stand on this issue. On the one hand I believe the Taliban should be defeated, and the people of Afganistan allowed the freedoms we here take for granted. We should have the restraints removed and let our forces do WHATEVER it takes to defeat them. Our forces are having to fight a war with their hands tied behind their backs.
Equipment not up to scratch. Having to abide by human rights bollox towards the Taliban. They can send 13 year old boys into the front line with explosives on their backs, or hide in Mosques where they know our forces will not attack them. FFS this is a war. Let our forces and the Yanks go in and do the business without any restictions.
If our troops cannot fight this war like that then I say send them home, and leave this God forsaken hell hole to those that choose to kill their own.
I also believe deep down even if that was to happen, this is a war just like Vietnam. It cannot be won. The whole Russian army tried fgs and failed. This is not conventional warfare. We are fighting people who value death more than life.
War ain't pretty, neither is death and both of those things go hand in hand.
So deep down and I do not know if it is because our Son may well be out there but....I am tipping slightly in favour of bringing our troops home. Fuck the Taliban, fuck their country, but I do not want this Government to fuck our troops.
A strong subject this end and our hearts go out to those " heroes " who gave the ultimate sacrifice.....their lives. God bless you all.
Until I know precisely what they're doing and what the consequences will be, I am prepared to reserve judgement. We won't know until it's all over.
Personally, I suspect that once you let the dogs off the leash, it's best not to pussyfoot around. Go in hard and get the job done. That said... whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster.
The Taliban are an extreme and oppressive force that rules by fear and terror. Ultimately they will not succeed as fear remains as fear for only so long before it becomes revolution. We are merely trying to accelerate that process to prevent co-lateral damage. Our efforts should be focussed on training those who are most at risk of the Talibans evil ways as it is they who have most to gain and therefore those who will fight the hardest.
Isn't it about time that a martyr popped back from beyond and let it be known that not only didnt all those virgins exist in heaven but ...... one woman with experience is worth more than all the 57 virgins said to be available lol
Passing by the Sunday papers this morning reminded me that I should be more concerned about the support our soldiers are getting from the Powers That Be...
I was under the impression that the main reasons for going into Afganistan was to stop the training camps where the terrorists were being trained to kill people in the West.
I thought that was the main purpose of this operation?
I would like to know where these terrorists are getting all these rocket launchers and bombs and guns from. If it is from Iran or Pakistan, then we need to do everything possible to stop it at source.
Gordon Brown states that what we are doing is right and just. A strange one coming from a man that sits in his luxury offices, not putting his life on the line. He is letting our troops fight a war with equipment that is not fit for purpose. Helicopters that would save many lives, are still not ready.
Give our troops the right tools for the job. Transport them by helicopter and not by road as this is where we are losing a lot of men through road side bombs.
The British publics support will wain massivly with more troops coming home in body bags.
Right tools for the job or bring them home.....now.
A terrorist on the offensive will always have the upper hand over a stable incumbent. as the IRA used to say - they only had to get lucky once whereas the occupying forces had to be lucky all the time.
The situation is Afghanistan will, in my opinion, get much worse not just for this reason but because the troops on the ground are not fulfilling the role required to stabilise the country.
The area's where the action is focused in and around Helmand is only patrolled and is not occupied. Forces work best when land is taken and then secured this is not happening as Forces appear to be patrolling and looking for an egagement. As the Forces withdraw from the patrol, the insurgents simply leak back into the area to place their roadside bombs and prepare ambushes.
Perhaps we should be thinking about something radically different and simply allowing the Afghans to get on with their lives and then we take on the role of the 'terrorist' - ie we keep the entire country under surveillance and hurl death and destruction from the skies whenever so called training camps are observed. Psychologically this is an entirely different role to what we are doing at the moment and puts the allied forces on the offensive.
The comments about Afghanistan and Pakistan are very real indeed. part of the border area's are vitually ungovernable already with taliban cells running entire provinces.
There is no answer but what is going on at the moment does not seem right and unless something different is done then it looks like there will be more of the same to come.
Afghanistan is the only one of Blair's killing grounds that may have a reason. Other than out doing Maggy, or taking a bit off of Russia.
...but I have still not made my mind up.
Well I dont think you can enforce democracy, there are way to many examples of us failing to do that.
As for terrorist training camps, if i were Taliban Id simply move them. So quite what are we doing there? I suspect its all about oil.
I believe the Afghan people occupied part of what is now Pakistan before we the west decided that they shouldnt.
Anybody know why we are there?
I see, anybody got any idea why we havent invaded saudi arabia?
Here, this is the kind of crap that bugs me. If the Powers That Be are going to send people off to risk life and limb (and sanity), for good reasons or not, the least they can do is make sure nothing goes wrong at their end.
Isn't the enemy already trying to kill us hard enough?