A few years ago Dr John Reid said that were going to go to Afghanistan on a mission to repair and create an infrastructure for the people there and we would be in and out in 3 years without a shot being fired. As the casualties pass 300 and the number maimed is many more this clearly hasn't gone to plan.
Then we put 3700 underequipped and under resourced troops into an area the size of Wales and hoped they would be able to quell the insurgent locals and exercise control and that hasn't worked either, yet.
What has caused me to start this discussion is a report in a paper today that a pregnant widow was given 200 lashes and shot because she had comitted adultery. This, closely following the killing of aid workers whose presence in the country was solely to do good for people with minmal access to any medical care makes me think that we, the US and NATO don't have the means or the will to impose our Western standards of morality on the country, do they want it and should we bother?
The Afghan Government appears to be incompetent and corrupt, no foreign power has ever had any success at quelling or ending the internal fighting there. Look at the efforts the Russions made before they gave up!
Do we continue our well intended but ineffective military efforts which won't be possible after the Defence Review anyway or get out and let the population get on with the lives they have led for centuries? I think there is more of a terrorist threat to us from UK Muslims living the the cities of N/W England than there is from Afghanistan anyway.
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