Rogering the News

The deaths of five British soldiers today, killed by one of the people whom the West were training to run their own country better, poses more questions than answers.

Why are we there?

Do the Afghans want us there?

What is the ‘end game’?

Who wins……?

We are there because after 9/11 George Bush wanted revenge.  Understandable but his legitimate target wasn’t politically acceptable so he chose the Taliban in Afghanistan instead.  We will never know how much pressure or how much he promised in order to get Tony Blair to jump into line and organise his European friends to join the cause.

We will probably never know if George Bush ever read history or believed in it – not always the same thing – because the Afghanistans have never been beaten in their own country.  Now there is a recent historical parallel for this because America allowed itself to be drawn into an un-winable war in Viet Nam because they ignored the experience of the French fighting in Indo China – perhaps they thought those were two separate places – and they rated the “Cheese eating surender monkeys” rather less highly than they should have done.  The simple fact is that modern French fighting forces are highly skilled and fought a long and bitter war there, which again, they were never going to win.

But, we lined up with the rest of Europe to fight alongside Bush’s troops.  America provided the bulk of the troops and America has suffered the most casualties.  In fact, casualties have been pretty evenly shared amongst the allies,  on a percentage basis, a fact which isn’t always appreciated.

Do the Afghans want us there?  Would you welcome foreign troops taking over your country and killing as many civilians as their suposed or actual enemy in the name of an alien concept like ‘Democracy?  Of course, some Afghans want us there.  President Kazi wouldn’t be claiming his office without our support yet he – our friendly President – has no respect for womens rights and is happy to use bribery, corruption and blatant vote rigging to achieve his ends.  Is this what our forces are dying to support?

What ‘End Game’?  The reasons for our being there are confused and the idea of a victory is just so much nonsense.

Our other allies are a mixed bunch.  The Germans – thanks to their Constitution – are not allowed on the front line.  Nobody can have been too surprised when the Italians were found to be paying the Taliban Danegeld in order to have a peaceful life.  The French found that out when ten of their troops were killed, just because they failed to keep up the  ‘peace payments’ .  Of the others, a mixed bunch who have done their best under foreign commanders with sometimes very different cultural aims.

Who blinks first?  Just as in Viet Nam, no American President wants to be the one to withdraw, to be seen as ‘weak’, when strength of character would say ‘Enough’ and  really  show great strength.  President Obama has not rushed to pour yet more young American lives into this death trap, despite the wishes of the generals who have a very different agenda.  He may yet make the decision which will save many lives and mark him as one of the Great Presidents.

If America withdraws the rest of the coalition will pull out at the same time and the Afghans will go back to fighting one another.  Not a satisfactory conclusion, but there never was going to be one of those.

If other nations just pull out, one by one, like rats deserting the sinking ship, then it is inconceivable that America would continue on alone – her hand would be called.  Many more will die before that happens, and nobody will be able to claim the moral victory – the only one left – but those are the only two choices left.

All down to who blinks first.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 4th, 2009 at 9:42 pm and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.