The best of British ( in Afghanistan ).

If you join the Forces you may be sent to Afghanistan. Or you may not. They can’t as individuals pick and choose where they are deployed (although the RAF can depening on the quality of hotel accomodation) To me there is a difference in supporting the troops as individuals doing their job and supporting the decision for them being out there and remaining there. If not, its hypocritical for example to be rescued abroad by HM Forces or even stitched up at your local A&E by a Forces nurse after falling off your bike.

No, we* financed the Afghan Mujahideen whose victory paved the way for the Taliban who invited Al Qaeda to Afghanistan.

Hehe….so a name change changes everything does it ? 🙂

Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda were financed, armed, and trained, by among other countries, the UK. They were in Afghanistan long before the Taliban came to power and were part of what was know then as the Mujahideen.

Osama bin Laden’s strength and power base was built on vital support from the US and UK, without that he would have been nothing – the UK helped to build Al Qaeda’s camps in Afghanistan.

Nothing at all has changed in relation to who and what the Jihadists target in Afghanistan, other than their targets now speak English instead of Russian of course. The war and the Jihadists aims are exactly the same as they always have been.

They can’t as individuals pick and choose where they are deployed

But they can pick and choose whether or not to join up or re-enlist, knowing – as everyone has done for the last 10+ years – that there’s a bloody good chance that they will be going to Afghanistan or Iraq.

Why should they give up their careers just because we (the govt, on our behalf) send them to do shit stuff?
There’s not a lot of jobs about.

But they can pick and choose whether or not to join up or re-enlist

Whilst the choice might be as simple as that to you (lucky you) for some young people, specially in particular parts of the country, joining the army is the only realistic alternative to unemployment.

I know of one person, who incidentally posts on here, who received opportunities in terms of training, skills, and employment, as a result of joining the army, that he would otherwise never have received. This doesn’t prove that he was happy to serve or die in Afghanistan.

I know of one person, who incidentally posts on here, who received opportunities in terms of training, skills, and employment, as a result of joining the army, that he would otherwise never have received.

Is that me?
Sounds like me.

Why should they give up their careers just because we (the govt, on our behalf) send them to do shit stuff?
There’s not a lot of jobs about.

Does this defence work in court for following all orders

I am sure many did not want to be there but they still have a choice all be it a difficult one.

There has always been a WAR on somewhere in the world. Always has been and always will be, from the beginning until the end. Accept it.

There has always been a WAR on somewhere in the world. Always has been and always will be, from the beginning until the end. Accept it.

That’s the spirit.

Is that me?
Sounds like me.

No it wasn’t you that I had in mind. But as what I described is fairly typical, then I guess that description could apply to many.

Awesome? I assure you it loses its allure after 8 months or so! Great pictures though. Apparently some bits of Afghanistan are beautiful, but in true British style, we built our base in a god-forsaken dust bowl!

If they didnt volunteer to do it you could be made to do it. Conscription anyone?

So if no one signed up in the last ten years what would be the implications for our Defence or peace keeping and humanitarian duties?

So if no one signed up in the last ten years what would be the implications for our Defence or peace keeping and humanitarian duties?

We might be forced to spend time finding genuine solutions to problems rather than using force to get our way?

Why should they give up their careers just because we (the govt, on our behalf) send them to do shit stuff?
There’s not a lot of jobs about.

It has been clear enough what they would be doing – what their “efforts” would be directed at – for more than a decade. You can’t suggest that their current position being in Afghanistan is nothing to do with their decision to join or re-enlist at a time when it was pretty much guaranteed that they would be sent there for some time during their service. (By the way, you’re saying what they’re doing is shit, not me).

It’s like taking a job at an PR company which you know works (and has worked for a decade, and has no intention to stop working) for tobacco companies, and then pretending that your job representing tobacco companies has nothing to do with your own choices. If you didn’t want to work for fags companies, you shouldn’t have taken or stayed in the job knowing it involves working for fags companies. On the other hand, if you think that everyone’s entitled to make their decision about whether to have a smoke or not, and that tobacco companies are entitled to engage with the public in a legal and ethical manner, then there’s not a conflict.

Finding genuine solutions other than force is a lovely idea. But every single country on earth need to do it at the same time. And that will never happen.

Finding genuine solutions other than force is a lovely idea. But every single country on earth need to do it at the same time

most of the world seems to do it just fine. it’s usually the uk and usa that struggles with the concept.

The camp is an awesome sight, i’ve got no problem with US and UK foreign policy myself….i like being able to put petrol in my car and motorbike without it being so scarce i’m left wondering where i’m going to get any from.
Shame for the indigenous population but humanity has always fought among itself for various reasons….conserving our comfortable way of life in the west seems as good a reason as any in my opinion.
Rather looking forward to when it all kicks off in Argentina again, nothing finer than the sight of British ships off to do battle in foreign lands, puts Johnny foreigner in his place and a lump in your throat.

Most of the world doing a fine job my arse. Africa is a mess for starters, South America run by dictators and cartels.

And we come back to HM Forces peace keeping, aid work, drug enforcement etc

Most of the world doing a fine job my arse. Africa is a mess for starters, South America run by dictators and cartels.

which is precisely the kind of myopic worldview which generally assures british govts that they can exercise aggresive foreign policies without too much static from their own electorate.

Most of the world doing a fine job my arse. Africa is a mess for starters, South America run by dictators and cartels, Asia’s ridiculously corrupt, Europe’s economy is going down the pan and the US is potentially about to elect an imbecile

FTFY 😉

the US is potentially about to elect an imbecile

given the breeding stock, anything else is a statistical impossibility

most of the world seems to do it just fine. it’s usually the uk and usa that struggles with the concept.

Come on now, that’s not even remotely true.

South America run by dictators and cartels.

I take it current affairs isn’t your strong point ? US neo-colonialism has long been in retreat in South America, and Washington can no longer impose dictatorships which will fight ‘dirty wars’ against their own people to satisfy the needs of US companies. Among other things the result of this is growing economies and falling unemployment.

.

And for you konabunny, since you appear to be relying on that old right-wing Norman Tebbit type argument if you don’t have a job then get on bike and find one, with your rambling nonsense about tobacco companies :

Youth unemployment passes the one million mark

“Youth unemployment has reached a record high of 1.02 million”

Come on now, that’s not even remotely true.

You think it’s not even remotely true that most countries manage to find “genuine solutions other than force” to deal with problems ?

I think you’ll find that there’s some truth in trailmonkey’s comment.

Come on now, that’s not even remotely true.

You think it’s not even remotely true that most countries manage to find “genuine solutions other than force” to deal with problems ?

No, it is true. They do. So do we, most of the time. Do we invade every country that irritates us? I think the OP’s point was that the West are far from being the only ones willing to use force to meet our foreign policy objectives. It’s just that we’re currently the best at it. The emerging economies, BRIC nations etc, are working hard on it and catching up fast. So we’re not in some kind of uniquely amoral position, in fact I think that as genuine democracies we are far more restrained and ethical in our use of force than most others.

Depends on the problems, but the fact that we’ve had considerable armed conflict in Europe, Africa, Asia (not including the US led efforts) in the last 20 years and plenty more brewing says that everyone struggles not to have a scrap when they get on each others tits in a major way.
We’re no more “enlightened”today than we were 50 years ago.