Letter to the KM on Afghanistan

As the UK death toll has ticked over the 200 mark, my thoughts are with the families and friend of those dead, injured or still out there. Below is a letter to the KM in response to a local person's attack on my letter published the previous week.

Before that, this is an extract from a post on Socialist Unity:

Perhaps the last word should go to Lance Corporal Joe Glenton. In a letter to Gordon Brown, Glenton wrote: “It is my primary concern that the courage and tenacity of my fellow soldiers has become a tool of American foreign policy.

“I believe that when British military personnel submit themselves to the service of the nation and put their bodies into harm’s way, the government that sends them into battle is obliged to ensure that the cause is just and right, i.e. for the protection of life and liberty.

“The war in Afghanistan is not reducing the terrorist risk, far from improving Afghan lives it is bringing death and devastation to their country.

“Britain has no business there. I do not believe that our cause in Afghanistan is just or right. I implore you, sir, to bring our troops home.”

My letter:

Dear Editor,

Mr Johnson's claim that NATO 'sorted out' Bosnia is, at best, an exaggeration and ignores the impact of the EU and Russia on the Dayton Agreement. However, more of concern in his letter is the claim that the UK is safer because of our actions in the Middle East.

Lasting peace is rarely achieved by occupying a country and NATO forces have occupied Afghanistan for a period longer than the Second World War yet peace there is still a long way off. NATO intervention in Afghanistan has not prevented terorist attacks in the UK, it has increased the risk of them.

It is now widely receognised that the only way to peace in Afghanistan is through negotiation with the Taliban, not continued occupation.

I, along with most people in this country, am proud of British troops and their peacekeeping skills but unless we are attacked directly, our troops should be deployed under the UN flag, not the NATO one. Peacekeeping forces need the legitimacy of the UN, not the US. My criticism is of our warmongering politicians and their subservience to the US will, it is not of our forces.

Stuart Jeffery
Maidstone Green Party