IN LAST FRIDAY’S DAILY TELEGRAPH, Con Coughlin wrote a piece on Afghanistan which headlined; “We may be beating the Taliban, but in this country you’d never know it”. Mr Coughlin begins his piece by justifying the phrase “…beating the Taliban”, which as far as the British people are concerned will make him seem an idiot. After all, why shouldn’t they? All they are having reported to them are the numbers of our own soldier’s deaths. Under such a constant one-sided approach to war reporting, is it any wonder that the British people are, if not already disillusioned, then are very quickly nearing such a phase? Especially when we are continually told that Afghanistan has been the cemetery of past colonial and communist invaders.
Throughout the whole of this war/insurgency, when has the MoD ever published the casualties figures for the Taliban? How many Taliban dead have there been? All that has happened is that the British people have been drip-fed the deaths of our servicemen and women on an almost daily basis. How long can this continue before the MoD realises the damage it is doing to moral at home? As Mr Coughlin wrote in his piece: “Normally, governments are only too eager to proclaim the military's successes in times of war, not least because of their propaganda value. Churchill sustained morale during the darkest hours of the Second World War with constant updates on enemy losses, while Thatcher was unequivocal in her praise of British victories in the Falklands.”
What is happening in this country when we only announce the enemy’s ‘successes’ to the detriment of our own armed forces? Has the MoD been infiltrated by the Taliban? Why would they want to give the enemy such a propaganda coup?
Well, Mr Coughlin has provided a very convincing answer; one which fits in with the times we live in. But first of all let Mr Coughlin tell us what is really happening. He begins his piece thus:
“Every evening in Afghanistan, small, heavily armed units of SAS soldiers are taking part in ‘kill or capture’ missions against the Taliban. The majority of the raids – which are guided by the latest intelligence reports provided to Nato headquarters in Kabul – are targeted directly at senior Taliban commanders, those responsible for planting the deadly roadside bombs that have accounted for so many British casualties”.
Since General Petraus took over from his predecessor General McChrystal ; whose philosophy was the winning of ‘hearts and minds’ to the detriment, as it turned out, of our soldier’s safety, General Petraus has a more hard headed approach and it has brought great success. He has let loose the ‘Dogs of War’ in the form of special forces on what Mr Coughlin describes as being on an ‘industrial scale’. American, British and Afghan special forces have taken their reputation for ruthlessness to the enemy with great success.
According to Mr Coughlin: “Over a 90-day period this summer, 365 key Taliban commanders were either killed or captured in a total of 3,000 night raids carried out by British and American special forces units, operating predominantly in southern Afghanistan. Another 1,031 "rank and file" fighters were killed, and 1,355 taken into custody.”
It now appears that the life expectancy of a Taliban commander is now only six months . Should not the MoD have told an increasingly demoralised public of these achievements? Well apparently not; and for what underlying principle? Well this brings us back to Mr Coughlin’s convincing reason.
WE HAVE LIVING AMONG US SOME 1.5 million Muslims. Their numbers are such that as with such a large minority their sensitivities have to be taken into account by our political leaders, who masterminded their influx in the first place under the remit of multiculturalism.
Our politicians are so afraid of upsetting this minority that they are even prepared to downplay our military successes in order to appease their sensibilities. While the Taliban is given encouragement by such a policy, our leaders live in fear of Muslim sentiment at home.
The British soldier deserves political leadership that matches their own courage. But all they are getting are feeble excuses of the variety that such disclosures ‘would only play into the hands of the anti-war activists’. As Mr Coughlin writes in his concluding paragraph: “This policy of restraint, however, is self-defeating, because public support is crucial to the ultimate success of any military campaign. British backing for the effort in Afghanistan will continue to wane until we focus on our successes, rather than obsess about our failures.”
How unfortunate it is that our armed forces are so ill served by their generals and politicians. If I had the professional skills and courage of an SAS soldier, I would hand in my resignation, along with the rest of the army. Never in the field (to paraphrase you know who) of human history, has so much harm been done to so many, by so few within the walls of Westminster.
The Taliban can be defeated militarily by bringing them to the negotiating table: an option the politicians have desired but are unwilling to make the sacrifices needed to procure. Thus we have the Taliban being told that if they hang on until next summer, the Americans will start to withdraw followed by the British.
General Petraus is making the Taliban think again; but he needs the backing of his president. Whatever it costs Obama, he must find a way of wheedling out of his earlier promise.
If he stands by his earlier statement and starts to withdraw the military from Afghanistan, then America will have suffered a defeat worse than Vietnam, because the Muslim world will rejoice at the defeat of the ‘Great Satan’. What this will do is unite the whole Muslim world and further radicalise those Muslim communities living in the West - whose admiration of the Taliban will know no bounds.
Which means that the 1.5 million Muslims living in this country along with the 15 million living on the continent of Europe will taste the Taliban’s victory. But even if only 10% of the Muslim population of this country throw their lot in with Islamism it represents 1500 dedicated Islamists ready to bring Islamic sharia law to the West on the back of the Taliban’s success. How will our security services deal with this?
The West’s Special Forces deal in one thing and one thing only, the same ruthlessness as their enemies. Petraus knows this and he is willing to unleash it against the greatest enemy the West has faced since Nazism.
The Taliban must be either destroyed, or tamed into compromise. A compromise that must be seen by the world as being democratic. If the Taliban is to exist within Afghanistan, then they must do so as a democratic entity seeking the votes of ordinary Afghanistan’s and abiding by their decision through the ballot box. The Taliban must fight elections and abide by the decisions of the people. This, and only this, is what the West is after in Afghanistan. Any other ‘compromise’ will be perceived as a retreat.
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