The Afghanistan War

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lewissaffin

lewissaffin

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The Afghanistan War

What are your views on the war in Afghanistan?

Should Britain be there? Should Australia be there? Why are Britain and Australia there? What is the point in the war?

I'd love to hear everyone else's opinion. I'll post mine when I get a few replies.
 
Re: The Afghanistan War

It's a complicated and emotive subject. Should the UK/Aus/US be there - good question.

Personally, I don't think I know enough about it to comment accurately, not least as elements of the war supposedly have religion and terrorism as their base.
 
Re: The Afghanistan War

The problem with Afghanistan, and indeed any other operation under the banner of the 'War on Terror', is that 'Terror' is not is not a tangible entity that can be attacked by conventional military means. 'Terror', or in this case Al-Qaeda, is simply a loose network of radicals with few, if any, military bases to attack, or avenues for diplomacy. Even a military as outrageously excessive as the US', cannot effectively fight an enemy which has no physical assets which can be bombed, and no political leaders to converse with. The war was doomed to failure from the start due to the American government's failure to comprehend the type of threat that it was facing, choosing instead to simply to try and cram the square peg of military force through the round hole of a diasporic non-state actor.

Despite this, the removal of the oppressive Taliban regime and the installation of a democratic(some say) government could be seen as a success. This new government, whilst making massive headway in many areas, is not without problems of it's own, with many claiming extreme corruption at all levels of government. (Most of the competing parties to current president Hamid Karzai boycotted the inaugural presidential election due to allegations of fraud). The removal of the Taliban was no doubt the success of the campaign, but Afghanistan still has a long way to go to reach it's goal of becoming a functional, democratic state.

As for Australia, they are obliged to support the US under the ANZUS treaty, which basically states that if one of them are at war then both of them are (along with New Zealand). ANZUS is seen as a necessary precaution as Australia's low population size and huge coastal borders would make it an easy target if we were to be invaded. The down-side of this is that we get roped into wars like Afghanistan and Iraq (the latter being an especially heinous display of American imperialism and military muscle-flexing). I'm not sure but I presume the UK has a similar arrangement, even if only an informal one.

As for the grand question of whether the invasion should have occurred, it is indeed a tricky one. It was essentially a post 9/11 revenge operation aimed at Al-Qaeda (and indeed the state of Afghanistan, as no distinction was made between Al-Qaeda and the region that harbours them). Since 2001, between 13,000 and 32,000 civilians have died as a result of the war, the overwhelming majority of those caused by US bombs. Whilst the Taliban has been ousted (for now), Afghanistan is still a nation in turmoil, and will likely remain that way for the immediate future. As for Al-Qaeda, their prescence in Afghanistan has been virtually wiped out, but, as one can do when you are a loose network of terrorist cells, they have simply moved to other nations who are more willing to harbour them, such as Yemen and some Northern African nations. My opinion is that yes, the war was justified and a necesary operation, but was carried out in such an inappropriate, ham-fisted and classically American way, that the effectiveness of the mission was severely less than what it could have been.
 
Re: The Afghanistan War

I was always under the impression that the Afghan war was a direct response to the 9/11 attacks.

America was attacked at home which has never really happened before, that was always going to stir them up a bit.

Essentially I thought the main objective was to capturn Osama Bin Laden - dead or alive - and in turn over-run the Taliban by removing their leader.

Bin Laden most likely died some time ago, IMO at the end of 2001 after a massive bombing raid on the Tora Bora mountains after Bin Laden had been tracked by CIA special forces - who called in a air strike which then contined for 3 hours. Apparently a Taliban radio had been captured during a house raid that was still 'on' so to speak. One of the US translators recognized Bin Laden's voice over the radio in which he was basically saying to his troops that the end was near and they had 'his blessing to surrender'.

The CIA special forces had Bin Laden cornered, they wanted to call in 800 US troops to cover the Pakistan border but the White house refused. Pakistan troops were used, and many thought that if Bin Laden did escape he would have crossed the border into Pakistan.

Still, in 2001 he was frail, rumoured to be suffering kidney disease, the treatment of which would nearly be impossibe to perform in a cave complex. He was most likely at least wounded after the torid bombing run in 2001. That was 9 years ago, he is most likely now dead.

The problem is that if Bin Laden was proved to be dead then everyone would want the troops out saying the job is done.

It may be in America's best interests poltically to keep the doubt out there whether in fact Bin Laden is still alive.
 
Re: The Afghanistan War

**I forgot to say that this is about the Iraq war too!

Personally, I don't know much about the Australian involvement in the Afghanistan and Iraq wars so I'm going to put forward my views on the British involvement in Afghanistan.

In my view, Britain ("we") shouldn't be in Iraq or Afghanistan. If Soviet Russia, a country who seldom follow the "rules" of war, couldn't defeat Afghanistan, then God knows how Britain, a country who generally stick to the UN war guidelines, can.

Recently, the protest on Wotton Bassett (if that is how it's spelled) by Islam leaders was disgraceful. The Islamists who were there shouted abuse at the parade held in honour of fallen British soldiers. The families of these soldiers were subject to this horrendous abuse and it did nothing to improve the general view of Islam in this country. However, we shouldn't be out there. The soldiers should be back here, defending our tiny island and making sure that these morons who feel it necessary to hurl abuse at war heroes don't make it in to the country.
 
Re: The Afghanistan War

The same thing happened after Vietnam, the soldiers who often abused after returning home.

People at the airport used to say to the Vietnam Veterans "how many children did you kill?", "how many girls did you rape".

The Taliban are tenacious, give them a crust of bread and they can fight for a week, in searing heat or in the snow. You can't beat them at home, this is Vietnam all over again.
 
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