Do we pull out of Afghanistan?

I know I bore you all but tough.

9 British Soldiers dead in 10 days. Our first Female Soldier loss too. A young girl in the intelligence corps. What a very brave lady.

The sad fact is, its the lack of protection that killed the last 4. A flimsy Land Rover. Our Army does have the correct armoured vehicles that would have protected these soldiers from the worst of the blast. Yet again they were penny pinching.

Afghanistan is almost impossible to win. I appreciate what we are trying to do out there. This is no Iraq.
We could bomb all the drug fields & get rid of the Talibans means of income in seconds. However we also harm the villager's we are there to help.

I still can not understand what makes any young person decide to go into the army at this time. Least of all my own son. However I am thankful to them all.

So what do we do. Pull out & suffer any consequences or plod on & watch the loss of our sons & daughters, climb higher & higher?

Too be honest Greece, Britain, Russia 3 vast empires came to a sticky end in Afgahnistan and an underfunded multi national force isn't doing much better.

The thing is none of them have tried to bring the Afghan civilians on side.

I say spend a billion dollars a year buying the opium, and then burn it or turn it into medicinal opium what ever. Make it actively worthwhile for the ordinairy Afghan to join up. Alot of guys are fighting for 10 dollars a day give them a 1,000 and a plane ticket out of there.

You're not going to defeat terror but you can offer an awful lot of people a better option. The Taliban have been in the country since the end of the Russo-Afghan war, and are the stinking remains of Pakistani mercenaries. The Afghanis them selves don't want them.

I say bring back the Mujahadeen, and accept that not all undemocratic Muslims are bad.

Oh and Karzi he's a waste of time, shoot him.

Scrap human rights bollocks, then just bomb them to f**k. Problem sorted.

It's a very big country, with lots of hills and caves. You'd need a very, very large number of bombs. Besides they'd jsut sneak over the border to Russia, Iran, India, and Pakistan.

And they've all got nukes, lots of nukes.

Quote: Aaron @ June 19 2008, 7:49 PM BST

Scrap human rights bollocks, then just bomb them to f**k. Problem sorted.

View original

Did your mother not tell you that two wrongs don't make a right?

Quote: Alan C @ June 19 2008, 8:03 PM BST

Did your mother not tell you that two wrongs don't make a right?

View original

If not, then you missed the chance to say "But two lefts do!"

Nah he used it as a reason for NOT having capital punishment in another thread

Quote: Charley @ June 19 2008, 6:56 PM BST

I know I bore you all but tough.

9 British Soldiers dead in 10 days. Our first Female Soldier loss too. A young girl in the intelligence corps. What a very brave lady.

The sad fact is, its the lack of protection that killed the last 4. A flimsy Land Rover. Our Army does have the correct armoured vehicles that would have protected these soldiers from the worst of the blast. Yet again they were penny pinching.

Afghanistan is almost impossible to win. I appreciate what we are trying to do out there. This is no Iraq.
We could bomb all the drug fields & get rid of the Talibans means of income in seconds. However we also harm the villager's we are there to help.

I still can not understand what makes any young person decide to go into the army at this time. Least of all my own son. However I am thankful to them all.

So what do we do. Pull out & suffer any consequences or plod on & watch the loss of our sons & daughters, climb higher & higher?

View original

People join the army for a reason, protect there country, learn some skills and so on, my own brother has served in Bosnia, not nice, but it happens, his choice, even when I was young I understood he could have died.

I partly think it's good going to war, but also of course think it's a bad thing, yes I'm sitting on the fence but I don't care.

Secondly, she was in a land rover for a reason, they're designed to be quicker incase of small arms/ RPG fire, but that's neither here nor there.

You shouldn't say it's impossible to win either, things like this take time unfortunatly, people such as the media hype this up way to much expecting it to be all done and dusted in know time, but know war is ever like that. We've just finished a cold war, remember?

I'm not digging Charley, but just think it through, there is always a bigger picture.

Quote: Paul W @ June 19 2008, 8:26 PM BST

Secondly, she was in a land rover for a reason, they're designed to be quicker incase of small arms/ RPG fire, but that's neither here nor there.

View original

They were at a checkpoint stopping suspect vehicles - although the news story is quite confusing as it says three of them were killed when their vehicle hit a mine as well. Maybe she was at the checkpoint and they were on operations... confusion reigns.

Quote: Alan C @ June 19 2008, 8:03 PM BST

Did your mother not tell you that two wrongs don't make a right?

View original

More of a cleansing.

Quote: Alan C @ June 19 2008, 8:28 PM BST

They were at a checkpoint stopping suspect vehicles

View original

But it was used to transport her? Or was it there for show?

Quote: Paul W @ June 19 2008, 8:31 PM BST

But it was used to transport her? Or was it there for show?

View original

No she obviously could have jumped into it just as the bomb started to explode - dodge inbetween the shrapnel and make her get away.

Quote: Paul W @ June 19 2008, 8:26 PM BST

People join the army for a reason, protect there country, learn some skills and so on, my own brother has served in Bosnia, not nice, but it happens, his choice, even when I was young I understood he could have died.

I partly think it's good going to war, but also of course think it's a bad thing, yes I'm sitting on the fence but I don't care.

Secondly, she was in a land rover for a reason, they're designed to be quicker incase of small arms/ RPG fire, but that's neither here nor there.

You shouldn't say it's impossible to win either, things like this take time unfortunatly, people such as the media hype this up way to much expecting it to be all done and dusted in know time, but know war is ever like that. We've just finished a cold war, remember?

I'm not digging Charley, but just think it through, there is always a bigger picture.

View original

I agree with a lot of that.

BTW I said ALMOST impossible. Not IMPOSSIBLE.

I agree troops are needed there. What they are doing & trying to achieve is remarkable. I am 100% behind each & everyone of them.
It is a horrific war with constant contact, all day every day. What I am saying though is, at what point do we call it a day. This was supposed to be a peace mission. I fear for the 16 year old lads who sign up now. Is it going to be worse in two years or better.

I am lucky. My boy is 21. A baby in my eyes but no 16 year old kiddie.
I have heard positive stories of boys turning their life around thanks to the army & I have heard negative ones. I will never agree that a 16 year old knows his own mind enough to understand what he is actualy signing up for.

Again I state as always I am right behind the men & women involved.
I just dont want it to be 10 years later, still going on & hundreds & hundreds of our guys lost.

Charley knows all about pulling out.

That I do.Withdrawal is not quite as much fun & can be messy, however better out than In.