Monday, November 09, 2009

Castrated Nation

The political class are unanimously convinced that we must continue to finance their exciting adventure in Afghanistan . We are always told the reasons for this are ,'not explained well enough', they feel badly about it , they often say so ... Au contraire say I , from the Pakistan domino theory, to bewilderingly inconsequential statistics about Afghani female education, they do a magnificent and incessant job . Its almost as if someone had something to hide , there is so much explaining .
The most confusing reason for rushing around a desert shooting people, is that otherwise we will be blown up by Muslims ( they say). This might explain occupying Yorkshire or Islington,given the provenance of our home brewed bombers , or , not letting so many in in the first place. …but Afghanistan .? I just worry that people will suspect that Politicians just prefer strutting around on the world stage at our expense to getting our rubbish collected. Lucky we know exactly how high minded they are isn`t it .

Those thinking of supporting nice Mr. Cameron have been accused of being autistic and castrated by the French Europe Minster . Apparently our wish for self determination will inconvenience the tribes of scribblers we employ , which is terribly inconsiderate , A little crestfallen the Nation kicks a can thoughtfully along the gutter and starts coming to terms with its irrelevance… after all even the US only cares about us if we do as we are told by the Germans ( they say). Still castrated though we may be, we keep buggering on and considering our lowly status we are lucky we were allowed to join in the fightiong at all .Naturally other more important countries have done far more ..
Troops in Afghanistan -United States - 68,000 ,UK 9500 ,Germany 3380 ,France 3070 ,Italy - 2,795 ,Netherlands 2600 ,Poland 2030 ,Spain - 1,000 etc. Oh dear , that’s strange and spending is also perlexing . US equipment spend in Afghanistan for 2009 is £463,000 for each soldier. For Britain's 9,000 troops in Helmand the Afghan-specific equipment spend equates to just £288,889 per head. For Canadian troops fighting in Kandahar province, the spend is equivalent to £507,539 per soldier .Now lets ets have a look at the butchers bill..Dead Soldiers- Britain 230 ,Denmark with 28 ( worst kill ratio) ,Holland 41 ,France 36 ,Germany 36 Italy 22 ,Poland 14 Etc. ...I suppose its just a good job we are not an important country with international obligations we take seriously like our European betters . Best to let them get on with it I think . Thats enough , bring the troops home

14 comments:

Philipa said...

Look, if you're trying to get rid of me commenting here just say, you don't have to keep disappearing.

Glad to see you posting, Newms, as ever xx

Newmania said...

Ha .. more like trying to get rid of me

Philipa said...

Yes, that's enough, bring the troops home. I see Boz is arguing to keep them there. Poor chap's had a talking to, maybe?

Apparently our wish for self determination will inconvenience the tribes of scribblers we employ , which is terribly inconsiderate , A little crestfallen the Nation kicks a can thoughtfully along the gutter and starts coming to terms with its irrelevance… after all even the US only cares about us if we do as we are told by the Germans

Oh how I've missed you.

Bill Quango MP said...

Time to call them back.
It may have worked in 2001 but its a bit late now. The USA was in vietnam from 1965{in strength} to 1970 {in strength}
The whole place went down the toilet in 1975. Death, mayhem and communism followed.
Today they invest in beach resorts for western tourists.

Electro-Kevin said...

I'm here too.

Five minutes and the nutters are back !

You missed the meeting on Friday. (Philipa, Idle, Blue Eyes ... and ME !) That Mayfair Tapas venue will never be the same !!!

Electro-Kevin said...

http://electro-kevin-electro-kevin.blogspot.com/2009/11/for-ib.html

You really need to listen to a mother tearing Brown a new arsehole. She agrees we should be in Afghanistan. Whatever.

If we're going to be there we should be there far better resourced ...

and that for me says all we need to know about Brown's lack of committment for this mission.

Electro-Kevin said...

And let's not forget:

Two Christian fundamentalists knelt side-by-side, shoulder-to-shoulder and prayed to God after the events of 9/11

They heard voices in their heads and obeyed them.

They then embarked on a Holy War. A Crusade. This is the mammoth in the spare bedroom.

The rest is a matter of bewildered politicians trying to justify something they don't truly believe in themselves.

Had the 'war on terror' not been such a monumental fuck up we would have been in Iran by now too. Continuing the Crusade.

Bring the troops home.

And exectute Tony Blair whose self-aggrandising conduct in America is an utter betrayal of our country and our armed forces.

Newmania said...

Bill I am not sure what your point is there , why is it too late ? What are we going to achieve and why is it our problem . generally I am all in favour of supporting the US but we seem to get no thanks


EK saw that and nice to hear you are alove and kicking

Bill Quango MP said...

N: point is in the time we have been in Afghanistan the USA and Korea had committed a million troops and a huge sum of treasure to making the Vietnamese like democracy.
The South Vietnamese were too corrupt to get it together, even after years of training and US military equipment given to them and the idealogical North steamrollered the place once the USA pulled its troops out.

The point is if the country you are trying to protect is corrupt to too high a degree then it can't be saved except by a} basing troops their permanently
b} Keeping troops in place until the ally goes through a period of change
c} bribe the opponents not to attack.
I think its probably too late in Afghanistan now. After nearly a decade the UN is pretty much where it was in 2002. Only now its minus the goodwill of the citizens who just want everyone to go away.

Newmania said...

The thing is BQ it mnay be very bad of me but I do not see the fate of Afganistan in some exitential way as my problem .

Philipa said...

"I do not see the fate of Afganistan in some exitential way as my problem"

I have to agree and beg your indulgence to remind all that Persia was a civilised society long before the Roman empire made it's bid to rule (which they never succeeded at). If the Romans failed and the Russians failed then I can't honestly see what our little island is hoping to gain there??

david cameron's forehead said...

Bill Quango, you omit to mention that Islamism was not & is not a force to be reckoned with in Vietnam. While there are some wonderful people in Afghanistan, as long as the likes of not only the Taliban but also supposedly respectable conservatives like Karzai & those a bit more "moderate" than him persist, the country will not improve.

A country like Iran has a somewhat better chance as it is more materially developed first, & might in time be able to become secular. But the odds for Afghanistan are less hopeful.

Maybe only a few Afghans support theocracy & most oppose it. But too often the silent majority is permanently silent & a few can stamp on the majority. (Which is why we have the rule of law in the first place).

Bill Quango MP said...

It does seem i'm supporting a troop commitment, but I'm not trying to. Bring them all home and let the country sort itself out.
We should have left once we failed to find Osama.

Massive troop commitment IS the solution though.
The study at the end of the Vietnam war found that they needed to have a massive force to invade the territory of north Vietnam and Laos and Cambodia and destroy the insurgencies bases and support. There is little point in fighting the guerilla forces themselves. its the supply of arms, food, recruits, weapons and planning, money and communication centres that need to be destroyed. This seems to be what Pakistan is , finally, doing. This should have been day one strategy.. but , of course, there was no strategy. the troops went in to kill Osama. Then, to defeat the Taliban. Then to keep us safe from terrorists. Now, to build a democracy. Tomorrow to secure the region from the Chinese.. who knows what the excuse will be.?

"I don't know what happened. When I left we were winning." Old Vietnam veterans bumper sticker.

Newmania said...

Well I could accept that others are better qualified than me to judge our long term security interests if it were not so obvious that we are doing all the sharp end work without the resources and for no thanks

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