Has The Mission Been Achieved In Aghanistan?

[LazyGun]

Seems a rather bold and perhaps a tad premature statement by Cameron, don't you think?

Rather reminds me of George Bush on the Aircraft carrier Abe Lincoln back in 2003 when he declared to the watching world "Mission Accomplished", along with a thumbs up, which proved to be a tad inaccurate...

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2013/dec/16/afghanistan-mission-accomplished-david-cameron

[whiskeryron]

I'm not sure that any of 'em have a working brain cell between 'em.

WR.

[emmie]

you are probably right.

[keyplus90]

During the Taliban rule opium cultivation was completely banned. Afghanistan is now number one country in the world for opium cultivation and for producing heroin. And there is enough money when that stuff is sold. I think that is enough "achieved" within few years, but unfortunately Americans are taking the bigger share of that.

[ToraToraTora]

well I don't know what the mission was but I do know the whole sorry sh1th0le is not worth a light. You cannot civilise babarians, pull out and leave them to kill each other.

[emmie]

during the Taliban rule Afghanis were killed, women were locked away,
sure this is what you want Keyplus. Not to mention the cultivation suited the Taliban, where do you think they were getting money from, getting their cut from the proceeds of the poppy trade, do your homework please.

[Ken4155]

Some of you speak of Cameron boosting the morale of our troops out there. Do you consider them so gullible they would swallow anything this guy says. Wonder if, as he shook hands with them - 'photo op alert' - he was saying to them, "We're all in this together."

[emmie]

probably not, however he should make statements like this, not till the soldiers are home, they are still there for another year i believe, so then would be time to honour them. Or to at least expound on the reasons for our being there, because i sincerely don't think many people understand the reasons, nor want our soldiers being killed.

[emmie]

missed out shouldn't make statement, sorry

[naomi24]

I was never quite sure what the mission was - but whatever it was, I don't think anything has been achieved for the long term.

[Quizmonster]

As a matter of interest, George Bush did not "declare" aboard the Abe Lincoln that America's mission in Iraq had been accomplished; the words "Mission Accomplished" simply appeared on a banner hung on the bridge of the vessel.
A similar inaccuracy appears to have happened with Cameron. As I understand it, a reporter asked him if he thought the British mission in Afghanistan had been accomplished and he responded in an affirmative way.

[youngmafbog]

//I wonder if anybody outside the Tory would agree // How can you twist this to the Tories Jake, they didnt start it, they inherited it just like they inherited a collapsed economy.

As we never knew what LABOUR had as the mission we can't really say whether or not mission has been achieved. I suspect that the minute we pull out it will revert to type. That is why we need an exit strategy(that LABOUR failed to put into place) and get out before more lives are wasted. I really dont think we can achieve more than has already been accomplished by staying longer.

[emmie]

this is what he said, if any care to watch
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-25398608

[emmie]

and as i pointed out, Afghanistan is look set to reintroduce stoning in public for adultery, lovely people.

[LazyGun]

@QM. Was not there, so can only go on the news reports, and this is what it said from the Grauniad yesterday;

"Asked whether they were coming home with mission accomplished, Cameron said: "Yes I think they do. I think they can come home with their heads held high. You know, we will not leave behind a perfect country or a perfect democracy.

"You have to remember that Afghanistan is an extremely poor country with a very, very troubled history but I think the purpose of our mission was always to build an Afghanistan and Afghan security forces that were capable of maintaining a basic level of security so this country never again became a haven for terrorist training camps.

"That has been the most important part of the mission … The absolute driving part of the mission is the basic level of security so that it doesn't become a haven for terror."

That looks like a fair bit of expositional volunteering on Camerons part, to me :)

Interesting point, that thing about Bush and the "Mission accomplished" thing. I had genuinely forgotten about him not actually saying the words, although elements of his speech were certainly deemed at the time to have intimated the sentiment.

[emmie]

i provided the link where he is speaking to the cameras, if anyone wants to know what he said. I still think it was premature.

[andy-hughes]

The problem with situations like this, is that emotive language gets used, and more importantly, remembered.

Even phrases like 'mission' and 'getting the job done (a favourite of Mr Bush's) are evocative, because they beg questions - who created this 'mission', what is 'the job' and who exactly gave it to you?

I appreciate that Mr Cameron can hardly turn up and say - we are basically propping up a puppet government which will collapse when we leave, returning life here to the way it has been for the last eight hundred years, regardless of the obscene costs in terms of finance and lives.

As far as halting the opium crop - this year's crop is a record, and half of Afghanistan's opium crop is grown in Helmand, where the troops are, so it's hard to put a positive spin on that part of 'the mission'.

History will record that Britain and America tried and failed to subjugate the Afghan people to its way of thinking, and that Blair, Bush and Cameron were egotists with no concept of what they were doing.

I wonder how they sleep.

[Quizmonster]

LG, I was simply trying to point out that neither Bush nor Cameron actually spoke words along the lines of, "I hereby declare that our troops' mission has been accomplished!"
It's rare indeed to find me showing sympathy for a Tory leader, but in Cameron's case it looks to me as if the reporter concerned was intent on forcing him to compromise himself by SEEMING to do so...effectively, too, given the way today's press have presented his views!

As regards opium-poppy production, I have never understood why we, the West, did not say to the Afghan farmers, "Grow as much of these as you can. We guarantee to buy your entire crop in perpetuity at a reasonable price."
Why should we have said that? Simply because we NEED these plants for creating legal, medicinal drugs.

[keyplus90]

////during the Taliban rule Afghanis were killed, women were locked away,////

Yes, that is what your people were told. They were the best people in the eyes of the West when they fought against Russia; they were still nice people until 9/11. Now wait until you would be told that Taliban are nice people. They must be turning nice now because USA & CO are pleading to have dialogue with them. And they are saying that they are not interested.

[emmie]

gosh you really don't like the west do you,
you are quite happy then for Afghanistan to reintroduce public stoning for adulterers, and hanging gays presumably,
you live in a democracy where those things don't happen, aren't you glad you don't live in these backwards countries.

[emmie]

Two weeks after the September 11 attacks, the Federal Bureau of Investigation connected the hijackers to al-Qaeda, a global, decentralized terrorist network. In a number of video, audio, interview and printed statements, senior members of al-Qaeda have also asserted responsibility for organizing the September 11 attacks.
It is believed that Osama Bin Laden, Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, and Mohammed Atef were the ones who plotted the attacks after meeting together in 1999[5] It is also believed Khalid Sheikh Mohammad was the one who planned the attacks[5] and that Atef was the one who organized the hijackers.

so not the Taliban