Much has been made of the withdraw of British troops from their last forward base in Afghanistan. As we’ve seen with the recent re-writing of the history regarding World War 1, our media and politicians are trying to make this out to be something that it is not – glorious.
If you recall, the original justification for attacking Afghanistan was because it was the alleged location from which the 9/11 attacks were orchestrated. However, soon after, it changed to fighting the Taliban. Then it was to curb the opium trade (which has vastly increased since). Then there was the over-used claim of bringing democracy. And of course there was the women’s rights issue. All of which were nonsense.
This ongoing war, as with nearly all other wars, is about controlling the resources of another country – by force. After all, this is the fourth time (in the last 175 years) that Britain have been at war in that country. Hundreds of British soldiers have died (this time), and continue to do so, because it’s not over yet. Then of course there are the many thousands of civilians that have died there, including from drone attacks (some of which are British drones).
We, along with our allies, are still occupying another sovereign country. A country that never attacked us. Can you imagine if Germany announced a timetable for their withdraw from occupied Europe in the Second World War? And so why is it alright for us to behave in this way? Our political leaders who took us to war with Afghanistan, and later Iraq, are war criminals. It’s also time we started to look at our armed forces with a bit more objectivity as well.
Colin/Tooting
