We Are In Afghanistan To Ensure Peace At Home

[pdq1]

So says David Cameron. But isn't because we're in Afganistan that threats from terrorists are prevalent?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2282540/British-bombers-plot-new-7-7-foiled-Muslim-terrorists-cell-plotted-murder-2-000-people-Al-Qaeda-backed-atrocity-supermarkets-town-centres.html

So how can we stop it rather than relying on our security services at home?

[jake-the-peg]

I must have been TWR

Tell me then while I was asleep what we are trying to achieve now?

'Cause when I drifted off we were looking for Al Qaeda

(Hint: By the way I think they're in North Africa now)

[Prudie]

So you seriously think that blowing their countryside to smithereens and the accompanying devastation of lives would ensure peace at home? Not to mention the eyes of the world upon us.

[TWR]

What is the main source of the Taliban's finance Eccles, Ice Cream?

[jackthehat]

///So you seriously think.....///

I have spotted your error immediately, Prudie. ;o)

[TWR]

Do you not think the eyes of the world are not on us now Prudie? there is a big world out there, how many more countries are loosing the lives of their you soldiers?

[Prudie]

I shouldn't think there's a country in the world that isn't losing its young soldiers somewhere. Blowing up the poppy fields and blaming it all on Cameron is not going to make it any better.

[EcclesCake]

Not all Afghan opium growers are members of the Taliban.

They are subsistence farmers raising a crop which sells well. For the record, they are not rich, it is NOT a golden crop.....for them.

Multi-national Government Agencies, Quangos and NGOs have debated long and hard what the best way is to approach this problem. On the whole funding alternative crops is the most favourable. However, the countries infrastructure means that a significant improvement in the road network needs to be implemented with storage and/or processing plants to ensure that the produce can reach a point of exit for the international market.

I'm sure the powers that be will value your suggestions TWR, I doubt they've considered them.

[LazyGun]

I can imagine that for a sibsistence farmer living in rural afghanistan, the money that could be made growing opium must be a tremendous temptation, to feed the family etc.

Once upon a time, the Taliban were dead set against drugs and the growing of opium - in fact, they issue a fatwah against it - announced that growing opium was "un-islamic", and the global levels of opium fell enormously, to its lowest level ever. The americans even encouraged the taliban to do this, paying them millions to enforce the fatwa against opium growing.

So if the Taliban are involved, something has changed. And it was always my understanding that we went into Afghanistan for barely reasonable grounds - destroying training grounds and recruitment camps for al-queda - but that "mission creep" set in, and the next thing you know the West is trying to democratise Afghanistan under the unbrella of the war on terror.

It seems to me that hindsight and history will judge that the campaign was ultimately harmful, giving rise to martyrs, killing civilians, costing billions, and not really doing anything to improve the security of the West....

[Mick-Talbot]

Are all the poppies in Afghanistan used for cocaine, TWR?

[emmie]

there are no winners in this, it was a fools errand going into Afghanistan, what is left are lots of widows, mothers and fathers without children, or maimed beyond belief right across the board. I watched a truly amazing programme last evening about British photographer Giles Duley, who had been out in Afghanistan and stepped on an IED. It has left him a triple amputee, and if it wasn't for the US army medics, helicopter crew he wouldn't be here now, nor indeed have been able to go back to Afghanistan to finish the record of the war, and those caught up in it, he started beforehand.
It was extraordinary to see him and indeed the people who show such resilience in the face of these atrocities, caused mostly by IED's planted by the Taliban. The ordinary Afghan seems caught in all this, and though i want our troops out, i fear the country will be back under Taliban control, or certainly that is how it seems. I do not know the answer, but only sorry that so many have suffered. If you didn't see the programme suggest you do a catch up, he is an extraordinary man and his sympathy, care for his subjects was all too palpable and as he said if people like him don't tell their story who will.

[emmie]

you can see the scale of the problem,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opium_production_in_Afghanistan

[TWR]

For your Information Eccles, I have friends in Afghanistan, that are local to Afghanistan, that know the Taliban, that have seen what the Taliban can do, Do or Die!, My friends son came back from Afghanistan, that helped the Afghanistan's to fight the Taliban, that was Financed by the Opium, that financed their gain of guns, rocket propelled ammo, that had their Grenades, he cam back to Britain on a stretcher, he was a married lad that had the world to live for, he recuperated in Birmingham where the scum was collecting in their Dresses & beards for a so-called charity that financed the Terrorists that helped to kill & main people that ended up helping him to loose his legs, arms, his social life, do not give me the sht, I do not need it, I live in a real world, I know they are not all alike, BUT THE CAN help rid the world of Scum like them 3, THERE IS A WAY, can we find a way? no whilst there are do.fecking goodies, & there seems to be a few on here.

[EcclesCake]

TWR, are you saying you have friends who are Afghans or that you have friends who are members of ISAF in Afghanistan?

[emmie]

i think the latter.

[TWR]

Eccles, I have enough to substantiate my comments, End of.

[emmie]

TWR, we are not sure whether you have friends who are soldiers, or part of the forces out in Afghanistan or that you have Afghan friends?

[EcclesCake]

I agree EM, I just wanted confirmation as I was worried I wasn't unravelling the thread properly.

OK, so you are throwing in the towel TWR, it would be good if you could confirm that you are basing you understanding on the experience of ISAF personnel and not Afghan nationals.

I have personal experience of Afghanistan, do you?

[TWR]

EM, with respect, I know the source, I know the Facts, End Of.

[emmie]

TWR, thing is i can't understand who you know, it isn't clear at all, so one can't give a reasoned response to your posts. No one is criticising just that we are not sure who it is you know..

[Mick-Talbot]

End of

Shows no respect at all.