Mutual Assured Deception

Total of British soldiers killed in Afghanistan = 287

Today's debate on Foreign Affairs strengthened all my views on Afghanistan.

Parliament is suffering from Mutual Assured Deception (MAD). Accepted by all parties in the Commons are preposterous views. All believe that Karzai, the Afghan Army and Police are suitable foundations on which to build a democratic Afghanistan. That's madness. In a series of interventions today, I hoped I illustrated that William Hague and Liam Fox  do not believe their own prejudices.

Hague dodged my question to him on Liam's confession that we should not be risking lives to improve Aghanistans's 13th century education system. Liam suffered the fate of all politicians caught in possession of an intelligent idea. He was slapped down. Slowly the West is agreeing that our many of our standards cannot be imposed overnight on a country that is locked in its mediaeval culture.

Hague's optimistic account of the three ministers visit to Afghanistan omitted their most vital discovery. They failed to reach their main destination because the Taliban were attacking it.  He was lyrical about a previously dangerous place they had visited but not a word about the HQ that is too dangerous to visit. Transparent self-deception. The chair of the Defence Committee said that we do not have a strategy in Afghanistan after nine years of warfare. Nine years?

There was a minor consternation when I raised the possibility of reading the names of the fallen. The clerk whispered to the Deputy Speaker that this was now verboten. The ban was imposed on me last summer after I read the names of the Afghan fallen. I have never previously raised this in the House. There is an alternative. Tomorrow the names of all the Afghan fallen will appear on the Commons' list of EDMs. To comply with the rules of a maximum of 250 words per EDM, it is necessary to table 16 EDMs. Possibly this will be a record number of EDMs on a single subject

I appealed to the House to change the Speaker's ruling so at least once a year the names of the fallen are read to the House. That special intense silence that greets  the names of the fallen should concentrate MPs' minds on the folly of our decisions. We MPs sent the troops into Helmand in the the hope that not a shot would be fired. We need a powerful reminder of the consequences of our actions.

If the names cannot be read in the Commons, perhaps they should be read in the Peace Camp outside of Parliament.

Comments

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Liam Fox has clearly stated that the only concern of British involvement is that it should protect Britain. It would in fact benefit Britain to withdraw. 9/11 or 7/7 are not relevant justifications for this, there is nothing achieved for the sacrifices made.

Blair and Brown have gone. Can the new goverenment behave in a more justifiable manner? We must face the reality of the consequences of British foreign policy. Previous British governments have been the enablers of American imperialism by acting as their staunch an unquestioning supporters. Blair was a key propagandist in support of the Iraq disaster.

I think the new government is more promising than Gordon Brown and David Milliband were. There appears to be no commitment to new offensives such as the one proposed on Kandahar over the summer season by the Americans.

We know from Iraq that American governments have behaved despicably in trampling on other countries. I don't wish to recount the abominations of the Bush regime, but Blair, Brown and indeed Milliband have no defence in my opinion for actively and forcefully offering them 'legitamacy' and 'credibilty'.

It is not letting the troops down to demand we stop throwing people into this geo-political, military-industrial complex engineerd quagmire. Supporting them is treating them as valuable workers who have an honorable place in society rather than throwing their lives away.

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Whilst I applaud your taking this issue on and demanding answers I do have to join with others in questioning whether David Milliband would be a good party leader or prime minister. Milliband might agree with your views on this subject in private, but he is not willing to say as much on record. Therefore I would count that against his suitability.

[Patrick]

PF

Fully support the above blog.

Can you remind the readers why you are supporting man that will do it all again?

Quotes from DM

Mr Miliband accepted that there was a “balance sheet” on Iraq, with death and destruction having to be weighed against its new religious and political freedoms and economic hope.

When asked what impact the Iraq war had had on Britain's reputation overseas, the Foreign Secretary said the UK was still held in high regard. “Even those [Arab countries] who disagreed with it say that you have sent a message that when you say something , you mean it',” he told the inquiry.

He said that the “wrong lesson” to draw from the Iraq war would be that Britain should “leave international involvement to others… that we are better off retreating into ourselves”.

[Paul Flynn]

Thanks for those comments. i will put my speech on today's blog. There must be point in the near future when common sense breaks through.

Sadly it may be the deaths of a large group of soldiers that will spark public anger. Until then parliament is out of step with public opinion. We cannot continue much longer. The best outcome is deal between Karzai, the warlords and the Taliban. It will not be good. The choice is between several bad outcomes. But a deal will recognised reality and we can end our futile attempt of reform imposed by military might.

Patrick, I am relaxed about my nomination of David Milliband. I intervene on his speech yesterday to make a point that our views are not the same. Soon I will be blogging on David's new campaign blog to emphasise what I have said here about my decision. I have avoided any negative campaigning against other candidates. But today's announcement that John McDonnell has the backing on only four MPs so far including Frank Field who is barely in the party and the Kate Hoey who recently celebrated the loss of good Labour MPs including Nick Ainger, thanks to the Countryside Alliance.

[Forex Brokers]

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