Taliban start Spring offensive.

[anotheoldgit]

http://www.telegraph....Afghanistan-live.html

Attacks on NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and near the US, Russian and German embassies, is there no end to it all?

How is it that they can infiltrate what must be very secure areas so as to carry out their attacks.

If a group were to try and do the same in one of Europe's capitals they would soon be rounded up and got rid of, so why is Kabul any different?

[joggerjayne]

Everyone is at home, concentrating on pre-Olympic security?

[anotheoldgit]

joggerjayne

/// Everyone is at home, concentrating on pre-Olympic security? ///

Oh! and I was just wondering why it was a little slow on AnswerBank today. :0)

[keyplus90]

Because it is not a group. It is 80% plus population.

[sandyRoe]

Did Obama and Cameron jump the gun when they said the troops would be back home for next Christmas?

[jake-the-peg]

Oh no they'll be back.

There'll be an embarassing "last helicopter out of vietnam" style episode.

Large amounts of equipment distroyed rather than let it fall into Taliban hands and lots of pictures of Afghan fighters walking around camp Bastion.

Back home the Tory press and AOG will be blaming Tony Blair and completely ignoring the years they spent undermining the troops by crying for them to give up and be brought back home.

And finally there will be a crime spike as lots of squaddies are laid off

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwmCPNid9Kk

[sandyRoe]

And then there's all the 'good' Afghanis that we will give asylum to. It doesn't bear thinking about.

[jake-the-peg]

Oh yes Sandy - There are over a million Vietnamese in America now of course

[anotheoldgit]

jake-the-peg

We had a good few, I don't suppose you have heard of the 'Vietnamese Boat People'?

http://www.independen...d-despair-727739.html

[jake-the-peg]

We did, there are about 20,000 Vietnamese in the UK, so a pretty small ethnic group but then we weren't heavilly involved in the Vietnam war.

Sandy's point is that after we come scurrying home with our tails between our legs there will doublessly be a number of friendly afghans that we'll be forced to resettle here

[naomi24]

Not sure about figures, but I think Keyplus is on the right track.

[mike11111]

Stop press! Naomi agrees with Keyplus! You heard it here, folks!

[naomi24]

Bit late Mike. It isn't the first time. If I think he's right, I'll say he's right. If I don't, I won't.

[Philtaz]

This will be the Afghan SF first real test in dealing with this sort of insurgency. If they don't cope now, imagine the disaster that'll befall the place once we leave?
They hardly instill confidence so prolonging the ISAF withdrawl is pointless, may as well make it ASAP.

[emmie]

The Afghani SF won't be effective, and when we leave the whole thing will blow up, The Taliban are not going to roll over and play dead..

wish we had never heard of Afghanistan, or at least sent our troops in to that god forsaken country.
We already play host to a large Afghani community in Britain.

[FredPuli43]

Must say,I've never seen foreign wars as an immigration problem, but I'll take your word for it.
What I do see is an utterly pointless exercise. Why were the Russians there? Not, presumably, to stop terrorists attacks against Russia.Why are we there?Oh, yes, because Muslim extremists could be, and were, trained there, rather than in Pakistan, which is where the leader of the terrorists was living, or any other Muslim country. Am I right so far?
The Afghan Wars of c 1878 made sense. They were to stop Russia gaining a strategic advantage. They were messy too, but the objective was clear and we did get something of a result. What 'result' have we got now, or could ever hope to get? None, surely, of any kind of permanence.

[anotheoldgit]

em10

/// The Afghani SF won't be effective, and when we leave the whole thing will blow up, The Taliban are not going to roll over and play dead..///

You know that, I know that, in fact nearly the whole of the British public know that, so how is it, it has not filtered through to those in charge?

Some sections will set up camps in protests at numerous issues, why is it then that they are not bothered about this situation?

[pdq1]

Maybe our politicians should read Dale Carnegies book, "How to Win Friends and Influence People" All the countries we have invaded under the pretext of helping them get democracy are turning against us, so much so that its a no go area for the Middle East. Britain now is far less safe than when the twin towers were hit. You don't make us safer by invading Muslim countries.

[sheranudeep]

The attack has been planed by pakistan's ISI to put pressure on western countries as the NATO is putting to much pressure on pakistan these days regarding some issues .