Continuing the unwinnable struggle in Afghanistan is hardly a viable option, from either a military or political standpoint. So the revelation of president Hamid Karzai, confirmed over the weekend by US defence secretary Robert Gates, that contacts have been established with the Taliban hardly come as a major surprise. Indeed, even last year there were […]
Posts Tagged ‘Afghanistan’
RIP Brian Haw, peace campaigner
Jun 19th, 2011 by Jon Lansman.Brian Haw, veteran Parliament Square peace campaigner, died yesterday aged 62. His death was announced today in a joint press release by the Parliament Square Peace Campaign and his family. Brian Haw set up camp in Parliament Square Gardens in June 2001 in response to sanctions against Iraq, and his campaign was widened following the […]
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Labour hasn’t learned the right lessons from Iraq
May 27th, 2011 by Owen Jones.The last of Britain’s troops left Iraq last Sunday with just a cursory mention in the press. What a contrast to eight years earlier, when they poured across the border with Kuwait in a hail of missiles, bombs and bullets, the international media following their every move. It’s true that a national debate on Iraq […]
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What Bin Laden’s death really means
May 3rd, 2011 by Michael Meacher.Osama Bin Laden’s killing is a huge symbolic victory for the US, but just that – symbolic. Al Qaeda always was, and remains, a quintessentially decentralised organisation and over the last decade Bin Laden has never been able to sustain any significant organisational capability because of the risk of electronic detection. To that extent his […]
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The Left Was Right!
Dec 11th, 2010 by Mark Seddon.Self justification, we are told, is an unhealthy preoccupation. But just for a change – and considering the enormity of the issues that are and have been at stake, I got thinking the other day about just some of them. I also got thinking about how those of us who have argued passionately for them […]
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Why should Pakistan trust us?
Aug 4th, 2010 by Nick Dearden.The Afghan ‘war leaks’ have revealed in stark detail the mistrust and tension that lies at the heart of the West’s relationship with Afghanistan and Pakistan. But this mistrust is not merely the product of a nine-year war, but of decades of economic control which have sewn the seeds of inequality, injustice and appalling governance […]
