When will this unnecessary waste of life end?

[anotheoldgit]

http://tinyurl.com/38zmfwd

As we go into 2011 yet another soldier has been killed in Afghanistan.

A Lieutenant Colonel David Eastman said:

"He was part of an operation aiming to bring peace and prosperity to the people of a former insurgent haven, and has made the ultimate sacrifice in seeking a better life for others.

Yet another complete waste of life, in the so called act of 'seeking a better life for others'.

Over the Christmas period we heard that a Bomb disposal expert had been killed de-fusing a bomb device.

Months ago we were told that these devices would be deactivated by remote controlled explosions. Why do they need to be disarmed manually at a great risk to our soldiers?

The government bring out various schemes to stop us smoking, to curb our eating, and make safe our motoring etc, etc. all at a great cost to the taxpayer.

What are they doing to prevent this carnage?

[R1Geezer]

I don't know AOG but I do know that the whole sorry sh1te h0le is not worth one British death. They are determined to kill each other, let them, agent orange the whole thing and let air power stop all the terrorist broccoli. No need for men on the ground any more.

[jno]

we went there because we thought they were determined to kill us, as they had done in New York. Did you object to the invasion at the time? Or do you just object because we're losing?

[R1Geezer]

we are not "losing" by any measure, it's just that the people there prefer to live under religious loonies, we went with the best of intentions, time to acknowledge that we cannot help any further.

I did not object to the invasion but I see now it is futile. Not a question of wining and losing more a question of we've done all we can.

[Kathyan]

We went there because Blair didn't have the balls to say no to Bush! The troops should have been pulled out years ago. The reasons for them being there changes every five minutes. Bring them all home, now!

[KARL]

It is important to understand that the average Afghani head of family (i.e. the only people's opinion there that in reality matters) has but one set of aims and that is secure stability, food, shelter and jobs for all his people. As in Britain, if one lot has failed he is usually prepared to give others a chance but when they too fail he will think again. As in Britain where people think British is best and European foreign next best, so the Afghani can be expected to give the benefit of the doubt to Afghanis first and other perceived allies second (it is certainly not primarily a religious question). With both British and Afghani, long distance offers of help will be scrutinised much more closely than local ones, it is pointless for well meaning distant outsiders to come on all hurt that they are not appreciated, not least if they are seen (not without good justification) to have seriously cocked things up. In my opinion the US-UK invasion and occupation of Afghanistan was a grave error. It is not only politically unthinkable to simply leave but the country actually needs to be prepared to look after itself after the interference so far meted out. The consequences for the US and the UK of abruptly packing up and walking out would be that both governments and their nations would be seen to have utter contempt for a chunk of humanity who deserved none of the horrors that they have had to suffer. The US and UK would be seen as arrogant beyond hitherto the belief of the rest of the civilised and not so civilised world - is that something worth advocating ?

[keyplus90]

/////we are not "losing" by any measure/////

Yes you are right because we aren't, we already have.

[rov1200]

Cameron isn't winning any friends by saying our troops will be out by 2015. The Americans will start to pull out in Jul 2011 (just 7 months time).

It is now evident our troops are not there to tackle the Afgfhan Taliban but to also take on the millions of Muslims from Pakistan flocking over the border. As they kill a few Taliban many more reinforcements enter Afghanistan some with the connivance of the Pakistan security services.

It is an unwinnable war. Unless we are prepared to attack Pakistan big time, not with just a few unmanned drones, but a surge of 1,000,000 troops they will always have the upper hand.

As was pointed out The British terrorists don't need training in Afghanistan all the facilities are here in Britain which includes the internet, mosques and hardware stores.

[andy-hughes]

I fail to see why we refer to this conflict as a 'war', or why we see it as something we can 'win'.

It takes just one individual - from the UK, Afghanistan, Pakistan, anywhere, to decide to blow up a target in the UK, and we have 'lost' the supposed aims of this invasion.

You cannot fight a nation of people who simply want stability and peace by trying to enforce democracy on them by propping up a corrupt puppet government, it is simply never going to happen.

Blair and Bush, the war-mongering reptiles have both walked away from this horrible mess, leaving their successors with nothing to do but try and find some 'acceptable' way of walking away as well, hopefully giving the illusion of having 'won' something.

All the Taliban have to do is wait it out, and that's no problem for them, they are at home already.

Obviously admitting that the invasion was wrong, with unachievable objectives and no proper plan in place is not an option, so we must wait while the media gently coax the nation into the idea that we have 'won' so that the troops can be withdrawn, and leave Afghanistan largely where it was before they got there.

A tragedy of heart-breaking proportions created by two men who are simply not very bright, and have testosternone and ego instead of inteligence and vision.