Unworthy ally

Tomorrow the voice of courage, knowledge and wisdom will speak in London.

Malalai Joya, the youngest MP in the Afghan parliament will be  speaking at a Stop the War public meeting. I hope the media will be listening. 

Malalai opposes both the "regime of warlords and  extremists" which is how she describes President Karzai's  government, and the occupation by American and British armies,  about which she says, "Just like in Iraq, war has not brought liberation to Afghanistan."

"It is a shame, she adds, "that so much of Afghanistan's  reality has been kept veiled by a western media consensus in  support of the 'good war.' A troop 'surge' in Afghanistan, and    continued air strikes, will only increase the number of  civilian casualties and increase the resistance to occupation.    

These countries are wasting their money and blood in  Afghanistan and I, on behalf on my people, pay my condolences  to those people who lost their sons, their loves, their  husbands in Afghanistan and have been killed. They should  raise their voices against the wrong policy of their governments."

In a letter in today's Guardian, Desmond Tutu, Vaclav Havel,  Naomi Klein, Jon Snow, Tom Stoppard, Susan Sarandon, and many  more, wrote of the need to protect the very few like Malalai  Joya "who still speak out on behalf of those to whom nobody  wants to listen".

Forced sense

Lord Malloch-Brown was a convincing witness on Afghanistan to a recent select committee.  Inevitably the press today latched on to the least important comment he made. The helicopter myth, again.

Far more significantly he said, “The main terrorist threat comes from Pakistan and Somalia – not Afghanistan.” He could have added a few other countries including the Yemen.

Bravely, he also says the public have not been told the whole truth by government. Blaming himself he said, “We didn’t do a good job a month ago of warning the British public that we and the Americans were going on the offensive in Helmand. This is a new operation; the whole purpose is to win control. These deaths have happened after we chose to go on the offensive.”

He also voiced a practical  longer term solution. Instead of mindless railing against the Taliban, he said that “the definition of victory includes allowing elements of the Taliban support group back into the political settlement”.

He is the first Government Minister to question the future of the Trident extravagance. He said  the  update should be scrapped. “I find it very hard to see how the current Trident delivery system – the submarines – survives that review. The plan for renewing them strikes me as [wrong]. There’s going to be a very legitimate debate about cheaper means of maintaining a minimum, stripped-down deterrent.” 

He reinforces the most useful role that our skilled brave armies  can fulfil, "The key need is a mobile land army able to deal with insurgencies around the world. The rest of military spending has to take the consequences.”  This is the area of our greatest successes in Sierra Leone and Bosnia. 

Posturing a world power is not longer affordable. We must have profound changes in defence policy. 

The credit crunch will force sense on us.

Maverick's day

The Norwich North by-election is personally bitter sweet.

The retiring MP Ian Gibson is a greatly respected friend and a marvellous MP. He was humilitaed by a Star Chamber court who did not understand MPs expenses and refused to listen. The Tories will win by a mile.

Sweet is the respect that Ian's Gibson's constituents have for this tough independently minded MP. That is the universal view of the election watchers. If Ian was standing he would win. This augurs well for results in similar seats that have similar MPs standing in the General Election. It could be a triumph for the mavericks.

That certainly encourages me. 

Total of British soldiers killed in Afghanistan = 188

Comments

[Paul Flynn]

Thanks Adam. That is interesting testimony.

[Adam J]

There is a report of the meeting with Malalai Joya MP here:
http://stopwar.org.uk/content/view/1379/1/
alongside a film of Lance Corporal Joe Glenton, a serving British soldier who spoke along side her and is currently facing court martial and imprisonment (see his testimony below). Messages of support to Joe can be sent to - [email protected]

INTERVIEW WITH LANCE CORPORAL JOE GLENTON

‘In 2006 my regiment was posted to Afghanistan for seven months. And if I had to describe my feelings about the tour in one word, I would say “confused”.

We were never really told what was going on, and the whole campaign seemed to be suffering from “mission creep” – the goals just seemed to be changing all the time.

Around the time that we arrived in Afghanistan the fighting with the Taliban revived and it got pretty rough. I was based at Kandahar airport and although we weren’t on the front line, the base was attacked frequently.

My regiment was there to support Three Para with all their logistical needs. We were told that the British army was there to keep the peace. But we actually ran out of artillery shells because they were calling it forwards to the front lines in such large quantities.

There was so much shelling there were periods when we would work solidly for 20 or 30 hours at a time.

There was an undercurrent of fear as well. I was fighting alongside people that ranged from just 18 years old to guys in the their mid-40s. We were hit by mortars and rockets.

Luckily, I never had to see one of my colleagues injured but the constant shelling does have an effect on people. A lot of guys, especially the younger ones, really struggled to cope.

POLITICIANS

Afghan people were attacking us, even though our politicians said we were going in to help them. It came as a real shock. We kept asking ourselves, why are they doing this? That’s when I became aware that there was something seriously wrong with the war.

Initially we were told that we were in Afghanistan to put an end to the opium crop. Then we were told that it was to rebuild infrastructure. Then it was about bringing democracy – but none of this really seems to have happened.

Maybe there was an initial plan, but it kind of snowballed. By the end of my tour it was attrition and war fighting.

That had a massive impact on the Afghan civilian population who were put in a lot of danger. There’s no way you can fight a war without ordinary people getting caught up in it.

When I got back from my tour of Afghanistan I was quite shaken by the whole experience. But there’s a definite feeling running through the army that they just expect you to get on with it no matter what’s happened to you.

While I was still struggling to come to terms with my experiences in Afghanistan and adjusting to returning home, I was promoted and posted to another regiment. And from that point on things started to go very wrong.

I was singled out by a senior officer who started bullying me – and there is very little support for someone in the army who finds themselves in that position. I tried to go through the army’s formal procedure but it didn’t resolve the problem.

I realised at this point that I could no longer trust my chain of command. I felt like a victim of the “old boys’ club”.

Around the same time I was told that my regiment wanted to deploy me to Afghanistan again – even though this is against the harmony guidelines which stipulate a minimum time between tours of duty.

I’d only been back in Britain for about six or seven months.

At that point I decided that to protect myself my only course of action was to go absent. I was having some kind of a breakdown and I got away as far as I could to Asia, where I knew I could live cheaply for a couple of months.

My initial plan was to stay there for a while then come back to Britain and prepare to be courts martialed and kicked out of the army – but I just couldn’t deal with it.

So I pushed on to Australia, stayed there for two years on a working visa and met my now wife. Together we decided that I should come back and deal with things.

FAST TRACK

I’ve handed myself into the army, and I’m now on a fast track courts martial. As far as the army is concerned I’m guilty and it doesn’t matter what I’ve been through.

They’ve just upped the charge against me from absent without leave to desertion. In the worst case scenario I face two years in a civilian jail.

Meanwhile, the politicians who send us to Afghanistan don’t even seem prepared to spend the money that’s needed to keep us safe.

Looking at the way the war has developed, I don’t think Britain is doing any good there and I think our troops should come out.

All we’re doing now is stacking up casualties. The Afghan people will probably go with whoever is winning, and right now we’re not.’