Powerful reaction to repatriation call

Yesterday I had an interview on the Today programme.

I started by saying that rather than talk of the meaningless irrelevance of the Diamond Jubilee spree, I wanted to call for our troops to be brought home from the mission impossible in Afghanistan. Then today's nightmare prompted these tweets:

All intelligent opinion here and in the US calls for an end to suicidal Afghan mission impossible. Are you listening Cameron and Obama?

Cameron and Obama must recognise Afghan tipping point. Public opinion no longer believes the lies that led to thousands to pointless deaths

@bicycleaccident The problem is the growing strength of support for Taliban from Afghans who long for stability and an end to the killings.

Rescue rich from dependancy culture. Cut all subsidy handouts to farmers and royals to £26,000. 970 now get more than £250,000 and rising. 

Disturbed soldier kills 10 civilians. Troops burn Koran. Soldiers urinate on bodies of warriors. Will war end in a Saigon panic exit

@orderlyplayer UK soldiers could be brought home immediately. Government want first to spin an illusion of victory to hide their past lies.

Most desperate argument for continuing the Afghan conflict is 'More should die to justify the lies that has sent others to their graves' 

Will the Government answer challenge to provide the evidence that the Taliban are a terrorist threat to the UK?

Powerful response to my off-subject call for the UK to follow the lead of Canada and Holland and bring combat troops home from Afghanistan

A disturbed NATO soldier slaughters Afghan children, women and men. All sacrificed to save face for politicians

 

Comments

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Thats great to hear DG. I always thought your support for the war didn't make much sense coming as it did from an otherwise sensible contributor.

[D.G.]

I've been reading over our old discussions on this. You guys were right all along. Sorry I didn't see it sooner.

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Another point to make about these night raids is that they help to create the insurgency they are supposedly trying to root out. When innocent people are shot, brutalised and dragged away to prisons for who knows how long then, aside from the fact such brutal treatment of innocent people is abbhorent, it only results in recruitment and support for the Taliban.

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The mother of one of the victims puts it into context:

'"They [Americans] killed a child, who was two-years-old. Was this child a Taliban [member]?

"Believe me, I have not seen a two-year-old Taliban [member] yet. There is no Taliban here. They [America] are always threatening us with dogs and helicopters during night raids."'

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/us-soldier-held-afghan-shooting-spree-074109101.html

Being terrorised in the middle of the night by NATO dogs is normal for people in parts of Afghanistan.

[Darren Midgley]

After what has happened in Afghanistan recently, culminating in the slaughter of 16 Afghans by a rogue US soldier, it wouldn't surprise me if the Taliban has grown in number.

Am I alone in thinking that whatever trust the Afghans had in us has now been completely eradicated and that we will never get it back?

The US Soldier involved should be tried, but based on Afghan law, not US law.

as for Afghanistan, we should now extricate ourselves before any more of our troops get hurt/killed in any recriminations, and before our country's reputation gets any further tarnished from our involvement in Afghanistan.

Paul - Keep up the good work on this, hopefully one day your voice will be heard by the powers that be.