So David Miliband believes war in Afghanistan will ‘make us safer here’.
Furthermore: This is a mission that’s been developed with a very clear strategy: above all, to make us safer here because we know these areas of Afghanistan and its neighbour Pakistan are used to launch terrorism around the world. So the mission for us is clear.
Well, David Miliband what about the safety of the people of Afghanistan? We know how many soldiers have died but how many thousands of Afghans have died? Over the past week it has been patently clear how unimportant the lives of dead Afghans are as opposed to dead British soldiers.
What about the 140 civilians massacred in Granai on the 4th May 2009? The report into this massacre orchestrated by the American military amounted to a white-wash and cover-up. Maybe Miliband should be forced to view the photographs and video footage of the devastated and destroyed village taken by photojournalist Guy Smallman.
I saw them this evening and listened to Guy’s talk about documenting testimony from villagers in Granai. Photographs of the children were heartbreaking, their eyes deadened to the world. These children are traumatised and numbed by the horrors of war. One picture showed an eight year old who had lost his whole family in this bombing. Truly harrowing and shocking being confronted with the visual narrative of the vileness and barbarism of war.
The military ‘claim’ that they bombed Taliban fighters, around 65 and between 20-30 civilians. Yet the Red Cross estimated that 93 out of the 140 civilians were children.
There had been a battle battle between Taliban and NATO fighters but it had finished an hour before the B1 bomber attacked the mosque (at 8:44pm) as people were leaving after evening prayers. The American military ‘claim’ that the mosque was being used by the Taliban, yet there is no evidence that this was the case.
Footage taken by the NATO fighters of Granai is still secret and classified. Why is that? What are they hiding?
People fleeing from the bombing of the mosque took shelter. At 9.12pm a B1 bomber dropped a 2,000lb guided bomb, people in the epicentre of the blast would have been reduced to dust.
Again, the pictures that show the burial sites are upsetting (one grave has 55 people buried together as they were literally blown to pieces) along with the footage given to Guy by a man who videoed the aftermath of the bombing where you witness men, women and children searching through the bodies to find loved ones. Words cannot describe the scene. I felt overwhelmed with sadness and anger.
If you ever get a chance I recommend that you look at Guy’s photos (he has an exceptional body of photographic work, I have immense respect and admiration for the comrade).
The meeting, as well, had embedded journalist Stephen Grey speak. The military controls who gets access to the occupied areas, there are restrictions on what can be reported, and journalists have to send their copy to the MoD to get clearance, if they don’t like what you write it’s censored! The reasoning behind this censorship and vetting procedure is ‘operational security’……..
Seumas Milne made an excellent intervention. He quoted former defence secretary, Des Browne, who called the war in Afghanistan as a ‘noble cause’. And Gordon Brown describing it as ‘patriotic duty’….
Btw: Parliament was ‘debating’ Afghanistan today.
The war is escalating, more British and American troops are being deployed and therefore more violence.There has been an increase in violence against women since the occupation and modest gains won have now reversed. Last year around 2,000 civilians were killed. And the media acts as the propaganda state war machine, along with this embedded reportage.
A poll conducted by ITN show that 59% want to the troops out of Afghanistan immediately. Yet the military has maintained that they will stay for decades! Or in the words of General Dannatt, Iraq and Afghanistan are not aberrations – they are signposts for the future.
There are thousands of refugees in Afghanistan and Pakistan, the ‘war on terror’ has spilled into Pakistan (AfPak conflict). Afghanistan could be Obama’s Vietnam and Pakistan could be his Cambodia.
The ‘war on terror’ has seen an orgy of torture, kidnappings and secret trials. All reflecting western imperialist interests while exerting the usual dominance.
The only solution is immediate troop withdrawal.
Debating? Apart from the empty haircut Cameron calling for helicopters every five minutes, not easy to have a debate when the opposition agrees with everything the government is doing.
Yet, despite a massive campaign from Brown to turn this into a popular patriotic war, not without success, there still isn’t a majority of public opinion behind it. And with most of the media unwilling to make a critique beyond the call for more helicopters, there’s a mass opposition virtually without a voice.
Mind you, Lindsey German got interviewed on News 24 this afternoon. But she isn’t an ideal voice, and immediate withdrawal is still almost absent from the discussion.
Splintered, I was being generous when I used the word ‘debating’ (and have put inverted commas around it now…:)
They keep going on about helicopters like more of them will help the situation!!
Yes, there is mass opposition with a voice and certainly that creates more apathy. Just what will StWC do now, other than a picket around Downing Street? Answers on a postcard…..
It’s surprising there’s still an even divide in public opinion about the war in Afghanistan, although there has been a 15 percent increase in positive support since 2006. Considering the readiness of mainstream broadcasters to sympathetically cover the army’s homecoming marches and the new Armed Forces Day at the end of June, both products of the government’s deliberate efforts to improve the public’s perception of the military, I’d have expected the numbers supporting the war to be more solid.
Clearly there is scope for building support for withdrawal – if only we had an more effective anti-war movement. The way that the energy around February 2003 has dissipated is almost bewildering. I accept that the imminence of invasion and the prospect, albeit a remote one, of actually stopping Blair and Bush helped. But why, I wonder, have we (the Left in general I mean) surrendered protests against the effective militarisation of towns across the country to the Islamist fringe who organised one mad demo in Luton (leaving aside Sinn Fein in Belfast, who at least are consistent).
Perhaps the inquiry into the brutal killing of Baha Mousa in Basra by the British Army will change perceptions of the military in a direction the government will struggle to control. But where does renewed public disquiet go, other than into resigned acceptance that nothing can be done?
(God, I’m a pessimistic sod when I have insomnia)
Kevin, it’s not pessimism but realism. You are right when you ask where does renewed public disquiet go, indeed look at 2003. Millions were against the war, globally as well, yet it still went ahead. Your collective voice means nothing.
From the meeting last night there were lots of angry people but where do you channel that anger for it to be taken seriously and putting these government under political pressure. There wasn’t an answer just various speakers giving their accounts (I found them the most fascinating) of visits to Afghanistan unlike Lindsay German who gave the usual speech. Yes, but how do we organise, build support and a real ant-war movement.
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