War in Afghanistan: Comment

Following the tragic death of yet another young soldier in Afghanistan, the message to the Government must be what? To give up the apparently utterly futile conflict in Afghanistan and bring all British forces back home as quickly as possible? Or to dig ourselves in for yet another few more years before we pull out? After all we commited ourselves to aiding the Afghan people by removing terrorists (and inadvertently the Taliban) and traditionally, we are a stubborn lot, we like to see things through.

I wasn't born until the 1970's but as far as I know, during the previous 80 years the only time we've ever retreated with our pride damaged was at Dunkirk and during Suez. Every other conflict we've been involved in we've been a thorn in the side of the opposition.


Is that enough to remain? To maintain our prestige and in addition, more significantly, to preserve the memory of the fallen can only but strengthen our resolve to see this conflict to the bitter end. And despite the recent deaths, it is quickly coming to and end. The Taliban are in disarray themselves and have split several ways into rival factions. But whose propaganda can we believe?

Some would argue however, that this is a war which should never have been begun. Almost 400 British lives have been lost, and many more times that number have been injured and maimed. Afghanistan is basically still a medieval tribal country, with regions dominated by local warlords and an economy almost entirely based on opium. What possibility is there of forcing it to become a western-style democracy and establishing human rights as we understand them in the west?

The original reason for invading 10 years ago was to capture Osama bin Laden and destroy his terrorist organisation, Al Qaeda. Hasn't this been done? Bin Laden is now dead and his international terrorist group is nominally based in Pakistan, Sudan, and Somalia.

Frank Roberts - HMForces.co.uk

British Islamists: Should we tolerate the intolerant or support the station protest?

Comedy banners

Don't these idiots realise we fought 2 World Wars and countless other conflicts in order to perserve our identity and freedom? That we'll not give it up easily? They are entirely ignorant of the British psyche and its cultural history. But one thing they ARE good at is protesting at train stations. They're actually doing us all a favour.

The latest one is moaning about their future King and Prince Harry serving in the military - but of course they serve. That's what our Royals do! Didn't they know? But they're a bit cheeky because involving the Royals they draw immediate attention to their Train station protest.

Whatever your opinions of Empire and war, the United Kingdom has traditionally been a non-agressor and has in fact always defended its position with vigour and passion, whether against Germany, Japan, France, or Argentina et al. It just takes the British awhile to realise they're under threat. [Invaders were third time lucky, Romans, Anglo-Saxons, Normans; and after 1066 every attempt has failed]. So if a few character flawed, attention deficit disorder individuals in the name of Islam think they can defeat a naturally very proud country that, let's face it, has not had a battering since 1066, they must be completely potty, ignorant and down right incompetant (like those Pakistanis that didn't know Bin Laden was living next door to their equivalent of Sandhurst).

At least they raised issue of ugly train station

So the next time you have a moment check out their website and just drop your opinion that you're not sure about their new type of comedy. Or are they actually protesting against Britain's ugly train stations? Well they ARE actually ugly so someone has to protest (they always arrive at stations too, coincidence?) - Waterloo is alright, and the new station at Stratford is quite nice. It might take a while to get used to but we will. The British have a wicked sense of humour.

So support them in their Train Station protest - someone's got to do it.