Carry on dying

In denial

No Kim Howells to answer my debate at lunchtime today on the Helmand disaster.

It was the lugubrious Bob Ainsworth, a relative newcomer to the Foreign Office. Happily he ran out of speech after complaining that I had not left him enough time. It gave me a rare chance to use the time he had left unused empty to reply to some of his major absurdities.

Bob is wrong about the allocation of time. The decision is mine, as the caller of the debate, to decide how to use the 30 minutes allocated. With the experience of vacuous ministerial replies in the past it was generous of me to allow him ten minutes to reply. I could have left him 30 seconds. As usual he stuck to his civil service brief that was blinded by denial and oozed lazy optimism.

I challenged the Minister to tell us about anything that has gone right in Helmand. I dug up the original quote from then Defence Secretary John Reid in April 2006 on why we went in,

"We are in the south to help and protect the Afghan people construct their own democracy. We would be perfectly happy to leave in three years and without firing one shot because our job is to protect the reconstruction."

We fired 4,000,000 shots in a single year. From 'Three years', the mission is now expected to last anything up to 38 years. At the start of 2006, 5 British soldiers had died, now it’s 89 with 339 seriously wounded.

On drugs we have gone backwards. From a 60% increase in one year and a 17% the following year, the Province of Helmand now produces more drugs than any country – including Colombia. The British taxpayer has coughed up £250 million on drug clear up that has increased the import of heroin and reduced the price to the lowest it has ever been.

In 2007, at least 6,000 people died in the conflict across Afghanistan, mostly in Helmand, of which approximately 1,400 were civilians. At least 500 of these deaths were directly attributable to NATO forces, mostly in air strikes.

This is no way to win hearts and minds. The USA is trying to bomb the Afghans into democracy. Everyone sensible confesses that there will be no military solution. Without winning hearts and minds' the mission is truly an endless one.

Kabul now closely resembles Saigon before the final disaster in Viet Nam. In Kabul there are 10,000 NGO workers and thousands of diplomats swanning around in bullet proof land cruisers from meeting to reception, from reception to party. All are spending vast sums of public money – mostly on themselves and achieving very little. As in Saigon, the Allies comfort themselves with kill lists of the claimed dead Taliban. Sadly most of these incidents do not differentiate between Taliban and innocent civilians.

The Minister's reply demonstrated no grasp of reality. It was carry on bombing for the USA and carry on dying for our soldiers and the civilians.

Avanti populo

Jack Straw's announcement of war powers and other constitutional changes is welcome.

Votes before going to war is a major change. Most advanced democracies have such rules already in their constitution. I reminded Jack  this afternoon that before Canada committed their 2,500 troops to the conflict in Helmand, they had a full debate in parliament and a vote.

In a non-urgent situation, we have committed 7,900 of our soldiers to the same hell-hole without a debate or vote. In the spirit of his statement, I asked him to assist in holding a debate now retrospectively on the vital decision. His reply was not unfriendly. He said he would pass the suggestion on.

My companion on the green benches Gordon Prentice asked if the constitutional changes would include an amendment to bar those who are resident abroad from sitting in our legislature. Gordon has a bill that would bar the Belize and Monaco residing Lord Ashcroft and Lord Laidlaw from sitting in the Lords. If only. Jack was not optimistic.

Iraq Truth?

The excuse for not having an inquiry into the mistakes and lies that dragged us into the Iraq War is that it would be unsettling for the troops.

That argument has shrivelled now the troops are parked in the departure zone of Basra Airport. Yes, they are doing work training the locals troops but they are not involved in the bloody conflict that is under way today in Basra City.

My select committee (PASC) has thought of initiating a parliamentary inquiry of our own. That is a credible alternative. To vote for an Inquiry tonight would mean walking through another Tory Lobby. That would be the second in a fortnight. I don't think I'm up to that.

Poetry pleas

A writer in today's Guardian urged MPs to replace maiden speeches with maiden sonnets.

He is correct. Ourthought and ambitions are elevated but our words are pedestrian. Why should MPs not rise to a striking metaphor and a cunning simile? To set an example, I quoted from the beloved englyn on Welsh National War Memorial that roughly translates. 'For his country he gave his oath, over the sea he went to die'. It's much better in cynghanedd.

Dros ei wlad y rhoes ei lw

Dros for fe droes i farw.

Comments

[Chris]

I think Kim saw your blog post on his Columbian army love in and made sure he was somewhere else!

[paul Flynn]

You may be right Chris. It's a shame.He tends to lose his rag when cornered. But he is no fool. I do not believe that he thinks the Helmand Mission is anything but a disaster.

[Michael Tom]

These comments about expats in Kabul are nonsense. I live in Kabul and am an expat and, obviously, the author is out of the loop. There is no excuse for lazy reporting. I assume that the author has never been a visitor to Kabul. Broad brush comments like in the article without specific evidence are intellectually vapid. In fact, there are large numbers of NGOs with foreign and Afghan workers who go routinely into harm's way to help improve Afghanistan's vast array of problems. It is no secret that Helmand is the center of difficulty and it is no secret that part of the problem is that NATO's socialist nations have not had the guts to stand up and provide adequate security. NGOs are not the problem. I suggest that the author come to my NGO. Two hundred very courageous, Afghan, America, and European hard workers will be found there with a substantial list of accomplishments, more accomplished by far than this article.

[paul Flynn]

Thanks for your lively response. The information comes from a very frequent visitor to Kabul.

I am sure that some NGOs are better than others. But there are 10,000 people in Kabul spending £billions with little or no detecatbale improvment. There are 11 group working to reduce the opium crop. It's increase in each of the last two years.

Consultants at recent conference urge continuing the present futile spending. It keeps consultants in jobe for decades. What is your NGO and what success can you claim?