The War in Afghanistan – Is it Right?

Another four British soldiers have died as a result of our presence in Afghanistan, a total of 18 this month so far making a total since 2001 of 307. Once again this begs the question about the validity of us being involved in this so called terrorist war.

The argument proffered that we need to be there to eradicate the terrorists who are responsible for attacks against our people here in the UK is not as strong as it sounds.

The major reason why these groups of people are a threat to us - is that we are a threat to them!

Do they attack us because we threaten them?

If we pulled out and avoided any further conflict with these people - instead offering to meet and discuss with them what their grievances really are, perhaps the threat to us would be removed and we can help them resolve their issues with the rest of the world and their own people.

I know that everyone says that we cannot be pushed around by these people, we cannot and will not tolerate terrorism but perhaps we need to stop and think and way up the real costs of our actions.

When I was a child, I was always having my school cap taken and spent half my play time chasing after those who had taken it. This went on for months and became quite stressful. Eventually one of my teachers took me aside and said to me ‘Let them have it. Stop chasing them ... they will soon get fed up and go and irritate someone else!’

How true those words were. My cap was duly returned by one of the culprits and they quickly understood that I (and no one else) would pay them any attention to what they were doing. They eventually gave up.

Like all things in life there is a cost. So far there has been a huge financial cost to us being in Afghanistan, the loss of 307 lives, over 3,000 injured plus the huge amount of stress to both our soldiers and their families and friends. What is the maximum price we as a country are prepared to pay!

It would be easy to say that what we do is what we have to do. But there are hundreds of countries across the world that do not get involved and as a result are not really affected by these events. Of course it could be argued that if every country in the world put in say 1,000 troops then the problem could have been resolved years ago and the loss of life would be spread and long past.

But I suppose at the end of the day we are not called Great Britain for nothing! We have to get involved even if it is at a cost which we really cannot afford. I’m not against us trying to resolve the whole issue of terrorism and subjecting our people to threats, I just question the way we are going about it!

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