Monday, 13 July 2009

Gordon Brown is having a poor war in Afghanistan.

Folllowing the recent dreadful casualties suffered by the British Army, Gordon Brown is having a poor war in Afghanistan. In a trenchant article in the Independent, Bruce Anderson accuses the UK premier of corporate manslaughter. Brown has not spent the money required on helicopters and armoured vehicles. Anderson argues, however, if the West pulls out then the Taleban would regain control.
I remember reading that UK forces would sometimes pass by Victorian memorials to earlier campaigns in Afghanistan.
In the Times Matthew Parris simply says we will not win. The tribal politics are too complicated for a start.

I suppose the Afghanistan campaign has suffered from mission creep. The initial plan from what I gather was to kill Bin Laden and wipe out as much as the Taleban as possible. Then, the objectives have been expanded to introducing development and Western-style democracy. These are very expensive. Now, another objective is to protect Pakistan through our presence in Afghanistan.

Fighting wars (and not paying for them) is not very good for currencies, interest rates etc. The UK will probably run out of money to fund its involvement in Afghanistan.

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