Better get used to it...

[andy at handiwork]

...apparently we could be in Afghanistan for about the next 40 years according to the new head of the army.

[supsim96]

can't see our spineless "politicos" having the stomach to commit any longer than the next 3-5 years personally.

[davey]

i wouldnt think it makes any difference to them how long we are there after all it is only other peoples lives they are throwing away while they stay here and fiddle their expenses

[one eyed jack]

I was wartching the news and asked the question "What are british troops doing in Afghanistan?"

In truth my ideas were somewhat blurred with Iraq (weapons of mass destruction) and 9/11 and Saddam and found this link in a quest for my answer



My point being is it is so easy to forget what Britain is doing there and why we keep hearing of soldiers coming back in body bags.

The madness of this and any war) and how people lose their way is demonstrated to great effect in a movie called RedActed which I watched last night with the extras of refugee interviews and heard from the other side what it was like liivng in Iraq at the time.

I imagine the Afghans (those caught in the middle of this) will tell a similar story.

Us brits and the US will never know what it is like to have troops guarding checkpoints and conflict amidst daily life and should really try to understand what this means to people who are similar to yourselves trying to live from day to day and the long term resentment that comes from having foreign troops in your country.

The real question should be...Does this have any good outcome that will benefit us living here?

If anything I can see this being boom time for the drug dealers who can raise the price of heroin if it is becoming harder to get hold of because of the conflict.

Ultimately it all comes down to money doesnt it?

[Sarah Kelly]

So, commit more resources and give the Army a half chance at doing the job properly( this piecemeal approach was a mess from the start) or .... save the money, and troops lives, and let them get on with it themselves? It isnt the armys job to build schools,roads, hospitals ,water and sanitation though if these were being done (more rapidly, and IN SAFETY by who ever best placed to do it) surely that would lessen the resentment of seeing troops there? WHY do you see 10 year old kids in ireland previously, throwing petrol bombs at troops( who cnt exactly fire back),... it ISNT because they understand the politics .. it IS becuase of what they see and hear in the environment they grow up in........... It saddens me as all i wanna do is get my tits out... and there is NO easy solution... x

[RoddersUK]

!love!

I very much doubt that the Army will pull out of the finest training ground in the world. Most troops love it, though there will always be disaffected squaddies anywhere and in any Army.
They get to travel to exotic places and they get to shoot people. Which in essence is why most young men join the British Army and the Royal Marines.
That's why I joined the Paras, a lifetime ago it seems now when 2 Para was sent to the Radfan to put down insurrection and shoot rebels.
My son has been to Afgahn, and though life is hard, so is soldiering, as he says.
This fucking shithouse incompetent illegal immigrant loving government we have, and the biggest fucking arsehole idiot of a Defence Secretary we have ever had is what is the trouble. Bloody hell Ainsworth makes Bufoon look half clever.
If the troops were properly resourced the casualty rate would drop and more Taliban could be killed, because that is the only way to defeat the bastards. Talking is a waste of time to them. Only the bullet or bomb is in their dictionary.
The priority should be to recruit and train the Afhghan National Army and let them take over when they are able, and believe me, they will be able once they are trained. Of course the best trainer is the British Army and we are ideally positioned to do so.
Biased, moi? You better believe it matey's

[max_tranmere]

I've already posted this...

[andy at handiwork]

Indeed but this thread started an hour and a half earlier