Optimism becomes naivety

Time again to be grateful to Speaker Bercow. There was no plan from the Government to say a word about the mass escape of Taliban prisoners. I put in a request for an urgent question. These were once rarely allowed. Instead of one every six months under previous speakers, Speaker Bercow grants about one a week. Today he agreed and at 3.30 I put the question below.

 

"What repercussions will the escape of Taliban prisoners have on UK soldiers?"

I then had two minutes to say this:

“The valiant professionalism of our soldiers in Afghanistan is as distinguished as any in our history.  They deserve the gratitude of the nation and of the House and our vigilance to protect them from avoidable risks.

The escape of nearly 500 prisoners is a disaster. Many of them were captured at grievous cost in blood and treasure. Now hundreds of them are free to attack our soldiers.

The Government have been accused of unreasonable optimism on the reliability and loyalty of the Afghan Police and Army.

This is the second major escape from Kandahar prison, An Afghans soldier murdered three British soldiers, the Aghan Police stood aside while United Nations peace keepers were lynched.

A large proportion of the Afghan Security forces have proved themselves to be endemically corrupt, inept, infiltrated by the Taliban. Their loyalty is often for sale.

On April 4^th the Foreign Secretary told the House of his satisfaction that many “operations around Kandahar over the past year have been undertaken by the Afghan forces themselves.”

When will the Government admit that a reliable ethical new Army and Police cannot be built on rotten Foundations? We put our soldiers at greater risk unless we concentrate on seeking a political solution?

Will we now concentrate on a political solution and abandon our misplaced trust in the Afghan Army and Police that is a deadly threat to the lives of our British soldiers.

Optimism and trust can become naivety when we don’t know who to trust”.

 

There was a lively half hour debate with critical and constructive comments from all sides of the House. David Miliband made a point that Government is more measured today than their unwise  optimism of a year ago. Julian Lewis was suspicious that the escape was an inside job-with prisoners tunnelling from inside and outside and collaborators guiding the escapees from their cells to the escape route.

This is terrible news and very alarming to our soldiers in Afghanistan and their loved ones.

 

View from Canada

Delighted to read that my former colleague Gordon Prentice and I are still in harmony. He writes on his blog.

The jailbreak in Khandahar in which 470 prisoners escape produces much soul searching in the Canadian press.

But Conservative Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, describes it merely as a “learning experience”.

Canada has reportedly spent over $4 million on the Sarposa prison since the last mass break out in 2008 involving more than 800 prisoners.

How was it that no-one could detect a tunnel being excavated over five long months?

How many more of these “learning experiences” can we expect before the penny finally drops?

Trying to build a modern nation state in Afghanistan – corrupt to the core - is futile.

 

 

Comments

[תאורה לחדרי ילדים]

You are absolutely right that, The government has been accused of excessive optimism, integrity and loyalty to the Afghan police and army.

[Emily]

Ps. Do you have any information on the organisation which produced the above ad, please?

[Emily]

Is that supposed to be a representation of a transgendered and/or gender variant person in the picture of the ad that you've featured in your post above, Mr Flynn?

If so, it may have been intended to be funny in a heterosexist and transphobic Bernard Manning kind of way but as a transwoman myself to see that person lying there gives me chills down my spine. In the light of recent events - where a member of our community was left lying on the floor of a McDonald's in Baltimore, Maryland USA having a seizure after she suffered a brutal, unprovoked transphobic attack - her crime to dare to use the women's restroom - that pic seems more sinister than funny. Perhaps you'd care to google this vile hate crime as the local McDonald's staff took pains to stand around and record it whilst ridiculing her and making insulting comments?

Well now it's all over the internet and now is the time for all people who value freedom, equality and diversity to make a stand! Perhaps you might consider removing the above ad from your site - and, even better, showing your support for trans rights and making a post condemning the attack in Baltimore, Maryland - because similar things happen over here in Wales, too.

Sadly, all too many 'mainstream' politicians shy aware from support for LGBT rights (especially if it involves trans rights) because they fear they will lose the support of any bigots in the electorate. But there are not as many bigots as they think as most people actually don't hate transsexuals but take each person as they come. Anyway, many thanks for paying attention to my comment. Just a bit disturbed by the pic featured above - that's all.