Afghanistan. It's over at last!
 

I'm sure we all heard the news this morning that Afghanistans' Army have taken over 'Combat Operations' and that UK Forces (some 5,000) will have a training and supervisory role only, from now on.

So. With luck we've seen our last UK casualty, Thank Goodness.:ok:

OTOH, how long before Afghanistan reverts to its earlier, pre-invasion condition?

The Afghan Army General on the Today Prog stated that large areas would be ceded to the Taliban more or less straightaway.

Is this a satisfactory state of affairs given our long struggle there?

What a bloody waste.

I doubt it.

How many British soldiers have been shot by Afghan army personnel ?

I'm not sure that anyone even knows what 'over' looks like in that region.


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Tashengut, I think they do, or at least should. It will be more of the same with all the discarded ISAF kit added to the mix.

Had Dr Reid bothered to read his history he would never had said 'without a shot being fired'. I hope he lies awake every night thinking what a mess he started.

You only have to imagine how 'you' would feel if you had thousands of foreign (not Western) troops basing themselves in Britain, patrolling the streets etc etc.

Afghanistans' Army

I am surprised the Apostrophe Police haven't picked that up yet :)

Unfortunately I do not share your confidence that we will have seen our last UK casualty. I think we will continue to take hits until all the troops (of all Services) are home. As somebody else has already said, there is the ever-present risk of Green on Blue, and even in a 'support' role they will be vulnerable.

I understand the arguments regarding the cost of bringing all the kit home and its long term support but it seems such a waste to leave so much behind. None of it will fall into the wrong hand though will it...

£40 billions of our money wasted.
444 British servicemen dead. Thousands more injured.
And we should definitely not have been there. The real enemy was Arab jihadists, instead we took on central Asian freedom fighters.
Blame Blair for getting us in and Brown for keeping us there. Criminal.
And blame the brass who wanted a playground and a justification for more spend on their particular force.

Sure the Taliban were a nasty regime, but there are plenty of those in the world. Our main achievement was funding a property boom in Dubai where all the corrupt Afghanis were stashing our money.

I'm sure they said much the same thing back in 1842. We never seem to learn. :rolleyes:

I find it amusing they release this "success" story on the same day there's 5000 Army redundancies. It's like they are trying to bury bad news.
Todays Afghan press release is so full of "spin" and bias about how its a success that we are bugging out, it's annoying. On the radio this morning they were talking like the Afghan National Army are as good as any other and will save the world.

They should rename the BBC to the Ministry of Government Propaganda.

The best book I ever read about the retreat from Kabul was Flashman oddly enough. Macdonald Fraser's historical research was impeccable, you can almost tear your hair out at the idiocy of Elphinstone and McNaughten. Lions led by donkeys was apt long before WWI.

Just finished it!

To all of you still over there, keep your heads down! Come back home in one piece.

and now we are girding what few loins we have for intervention in/over/around Syria?

Perhaps Switzerland could teach our politicians a thing or two.

I am and always have been a civilian but every one of those British dead have grieved me. Not wasted but unnecessary, despite what we are told.

Have we noticed the high proportion of junior leaders that have been lost: LCpl, Cpl, Sgt, and 2Lt Lt Capt and of course equivalent? These men and women would have been our shield and strength in 10 years time.

Can we please just mind our own business for ten years and just react if someone pokes us with a sharp stick?

For the country that created one of the biggest empires the world has yet seen, it would be surprising if it could ever become isolationist and cease trying to influence world affairs. The world has been moulded greatly by that influence in the past however futile it might have appeared from time to time. I can't help but think that a lot of today's successes in business, exports, finance etc etc are the long term payoff from a lot of past meddling. My life is not on the line so it's hypocritical of me to say what should or should not be done - I'm just commenting on what one can expect of a place with such a history.

Now US talking to the Taliban....................

Right that 2001 plan really worked didn't it.

Afghanistan. It's over at last!
 

Who won?



.

Frees the guys and girls up to be made redundant by a 'grateful nation'.

I know we all got paid while we were in, but it does smack of being kicked in the goolies having just done a good job.

Yup, totally agree :(

Bit like WW1 and WW2 where the war time armies were reduced drastically to peacetime levels. While many in WW2 were only too pleased to be demobbed there were many others that would have wished to stay.

In other words, sad though it may be, force reductions always follow a 'successful' outcome. IIRC GW2 also saw redundancies even as Afg was ramping up. Same with the other conflicts post FI and CW.

PN

So they get rid of 5000 but spend on TV and other advertising to
try to get 10,000 recruits, even if some / most are reservists.

Just seems that they cut then re recruit new people.


Re the FI, the military didn't have time to expand before hand,
were these cuts already planned ?

In that the point of going was to deny Al Qaeda a safe haven - we did, by Jan 2002. For some reason we stuck around.....