Once again, imperialism that just doesn’t work...
HOW great would it be to say, that the peace movement was right when it warned America and Britain not to bomb or invade Afghanistan, Iraq or Libya?
We said Afghanistan, a country nobody has ever won a war in, was unwinnable. The British in 1842 lost, and in just one battle, 16,000 British soldiers died. The vast Soviet Union also lost.
And the US and Britain after 20 years of unremitting warfare are about to lose big style right now.
But there’s no “victory” in such a statement. What we are leaving is a destroyed nation with perhaps hundreds of thousands of dead and injured, at an insane cost to ourselves of perhaps $3trillion.
And what of the future? It’s clearly not over.
What is going to happen to young girls and women trying to get educated under the soon to be new Taliban government?
And how much were we, the Great British public, used and abused to support this war?
IT’S TIME TO MOVE ON
IT never ceases to amaze me that far too many individual people or peopled organisations never practice a ‘What If’ philosophy or a ‘What If’ prudent approach to life.
My amazement is magnified when the current Prime Minister, his Cabinet and Government seems content to be taken by surprise or forced into U-turns due to his and their lack of thinking ‘but what if.’
It is my sincere hope that opposition MPs of all colours are joined by sound thinking Tory MPs to put an end to Johnson’s term in office.
It is my belief Johnson feels he has achieved his boyhood ambitions and he will be content to vacate the political stage for the much more lucrative book sales and after dinner speaking in the UK and USA.
Tony Charles
via email
NOT WHAT PATIENT ORDERED
My nephew tested positive for Covid-19 as did his mother and father so they are all isolating in the same house.
He is not very well and phoned 111. The out-of-hours doctor phoned him last night and said he would send a prescription over for him.
I went to the pharmacy to pick it up as I live nearby they had no trace of it so I went to the doctors to see if they had received it they had not.
What is going on? If you are isolating and need to see a doctor, best of luck. They can’t even get a prescription to you.
Barbara Brighouse
via email
ROC IS CONTRADICTORY
DESPITE their country being banned from the Olympics, a team representing Russia has been competing in Tokyo, with athletes being classed as independent in a Russian Olympic Committee team.
Remember Cherie Blair and Hilary Clinton telling us they believed in women’s rights? Perhaps they’ll go there now?
No lessons have been learned and of course America has got form in leaving countries under nightmarish clouds they invented.
After the bombing of Vietnam and Cambodia, Cambodia was so destabilised that it led to the rise of the Khmer Rouge who then murdered millions more poor Cambodians.
And what about what we did in Iraq, so destabilising that country, that it was nearly taken over by ISIS, the Khmer Rouge of the Middle East?
So, what is it about America and Britain? We nearly won the Afghanistan War in 2001 but instead of scarpering and giving that money to aid agencies to rebuild the country, we continued sticking our dirty noses into places is wasn’t wanted or needed. Classic imperialism! It doesn’t work! How shameful are we?
Mark Holt via email
It’s such a contradictory situation, and is like a football team being barred from playing in European competition for a season, but their players still being allowed to play in the tournaments under their club’s name.
Dave Bassett, address supplied