DID OUR SONS DIE IN VAIN?
Letter to Johnson says invasion was a waste of their sons’ sacrifice
THE mums of soldiers killed in Afghanistan want a public inquiry into the 20-year war – which they say was based on a bed of lies.
As Taliban insurgents reclaimed Kabul, the mothers say their sons died for nothing and that no British soldier should set foot there again.
Yesterday was the 12th anniversary of the deaths of two war heroes – Sergeant Simon Valentine of 2nd Battalion The Royal Regiment of Fusiliers and Private Richard Hunt of 2nd Battalion The Royal Welsh. In letter to Boris Johnson, the mums call for successive governments to be held to account for the tragic toll.
THERE are 457 reasons why no British soldier should ever be sent to fight in Afghanistan again.
That is the number of heroic fallen soldiers who made the ultimate sacrifice, fighting for their country.
It’s a horrific death toll that doesn’t include the thousands who returned catastrophically injured, physically and mentally, and the growing suicide count.
Now we have left the hellhole of Afghanistan and the Taliban are taking over. Again.
What was the point in our boys giving their lives in a war we should never have been in? For our dead children and the bereaved families left behind, it has been a monumental and heartbreaking waste.
Now we believe our boys are owed a debt for their sacrifice, with an inquiry that holds every politician that sent us to war accountable – starting with the worst culprit Tony Blair.
Would he have sent his own son to fight on the frontline? We think not.
He should be made to walk through a field of improvised explosive devices and feel the lottery of death our troops faced every day.
He and his cronies treated our military likes pawns on a chessboard while back home it became a breeding ground for terrorism.
We were told the war was to clear out Al-Qaeda, keep terror from British streets and bring peace and stability to the Afghan people, but it failed.
If anything, all we did was poke the hornets’ nest and stir up hatred against us.
The invasion brought bloodshed to our streets – the opposite of what politicians said they were trying to prevent.
Britain is now more dangerous and volatile than ever.
Yet we are back to square one as the Taliban stand poised to rule again, compounding our heartache, and making a mockery of our sons’ sacrifice.
We believe our country, our troops, and bereaved families of the fallen have all been lied to, repeatedly.
As bereaved mums we remain proud of our sons’ bravery but we learned the hard way that war is about money and power – anybody who tells you otherwise is either in on it or stupid.
This was always about profit and control, like every other war.
That is why we urge you to open a public inquiry, as we did with Iraq, to stand any chance of uncovering at least some of the truth. We want to
know who gained from this corrupt war and why our soldiers were sent into battle ill-equipped and with kit not fit for purpose.
So many blunders directly contributed to soldiers’ deaths, leaving just as much blood on the hands of our leaders as the Taliban.
The former head of the Army, General Lord Dannatt, has also called for an inquiry to spotlight the errors of the conflict. We back him entirely.
It’s a double heartbreak for us to be back where we started 20 years on.
The Taliban have done exactly as they said – sit out the invasion and wait for us to leave before returning. You may not have sent our boys to war, but as our Prime Minister, you owe us the truth. What was it all for?
The families of our dead soldiers were lied to repeatedly by the MoD trying to cover up their secrets and failings.
We have long been thrown on a scrapheap and no longer know who we can trust.
The phoney rhetoric of past leaders has left us in despair.
Every politician who sanctioned Afghanistan owes us and we want reassurance not a single British soldier will ever be deployed to this godforsaken place again. History has shown it’s too high a price to pay. We know war is a dirty business but if you are going to play Russian roulette with our children’s lives, at least have the decency to give us the truth.
It’s the very least our murdered sons and their families deserve.
To honour the fallen, we must respect the living and we call on you as our Prime Minister to show you care with a public inquiry.
Yours sincerely, Carol Valentine, Helen Perry, Hazel Hunt, Caroline Whitaker, Caroline Jane Munday-Baker and Lesley Alderton.