Should our troops be brought out of Afghanistan by Christmas?

[anotheoldgit]

http://stopwar.org.uk...ome-home-by-christmas

There is apparently a mass demonstration taking place in London today, where the names of all 433 British service personnel who have died in this conflict will be read out.

A MP was kicked out of Parliament for saying the Government is lying about Afghanistan.

http://www.informatio...info/article32504.htm

Seems strange I never read anything in the papers about this or today's protest in London for that matter.

[FredPuli43]

Strange indeed that you never read anything in the papers about this, aog. The suspension of Mr Flynn MP was reported in the Daily Mail, published 18th SeptemberIt was also covered by ITV News, among other news sources.
The demonstration? I haven't googled that yet, but it won't be newsworthy to national media until it happens, will it?

[jake-the-peg]

Very strange indeed

especially when you see this story posted by the BBC on the same date!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/...les-politics-19636286


Back to the story - yes we should pull out - not always felt that way but since the debarcle of the elections it was clear that the Army's not won the "hearts and minds" war so we need to go.

By Christmas?

That may not be possible, doing wrong might cause places like Bastion to be overrun and there'd be more loss of life.

We should withdraw as soon as possible and then pass legislation to ensure our armed forces are dedicated to directly defending the UK and not playing soldier around the world.

We could then reduce military spending to an appropriate level

[sandyRoe]

But if we did that ^ we'd forfeit our role as Obama's lap dog.

[emmie]

I heard something about this demo on the radio this morning. I reckon if we could pull out of Afghanistan tonight we should do it, of course that's not remotely feasible, but tomorrow, then the day after that till all the service personnel are out, then leave it to the politicians of Afghanistan, Britain, USA to sort out what happens next if anything. Or better still let the Afghan people alone to sort out their problems.

[tonyav]

ASAP imo.

[pdq1]

I think its more of a logistical exercise to get our equipment out rather than the soldiers. Maybe we should hand all the tanks and weaponry over to them and let them get on with it. Just package the drones though.

[Gromit]

Everyone appears to agree we should withdraw ASAP. Unfortunately there is still debate about when ASAP is possible. We have made a commitment with Khazi that we will stay as long as it takes. Obama has said we will stay until we win and the Government just o with whatever the Ameticans want us to do,

I do not favour an arbitory date such as Christmas. Our withdrawal must not give the enemy an advantage and we must not make things easy for alqaeda and the Taliban. We must take as long as it takes to withdraw with honour and not with our tails between our legs.

[mrsmaveric]

this is turning out to be the uks vietnam..the job must be finished no matter how fruitless it may seem at the moment..

[anotheoldgit]

mrsmaveric

/// the job must be finished no matter how fruitless it may seem at the moment.///

And what do you think it will take before the 'job is finished'.

Or perhaps more to the point, what is the 'job' that needs to be finished?

[emmie]

We must take as long as it takes to withdraw with honour and not with our tails between our legs

there is no honour in this war, and we will leave it with our tail between our legs, how can we not.