Afghanistan

I was pleasantly surprised to hear David Cameron opine that he wanted British troop out of Afghanistan by the next parliament. This is great news and I believe the first moves in a long term strategy to have us sever our lap dog ties to the U.S Military machine. It does strike me as strange that it is a Conservative P.M that is keen to have us out whilst Brown and Labour seemed happy to stay glued to the U.S coat tails. The talk of victory is now a thing of the past and the words being used are 'workable outcome' and a 'better Afghanistan'!! I have no idea what that means and people and the Taliban will see it for what it is..defeat. The lie that it is in our national interest to be in Afghanistan may have been the case in 2003 when the Taliban were in control, but now the threat has moved to Pakistan and the threat of a Sharia Government having control of the Pakistan nuclear arsenal is very real and terrifying. What is clear is that once again the Afghanistan farmers have proved that they are not only exceptional poppy harvester's but when handed a Kalashnikov assault weapon and some plastic explosive they are extremely able and tenacious fighting men.  They can now add the imperial forces of the U.S to the list including Britain and the Soviet Union; other empires also sent away with their tails between there legs. There will be many families torn apart by the continued deployment of Nato troops in Afghanistan as the casualties continue to mount. This really has become our Vietnam, if only the New Labour Government had had the same bottle and gumption as Harold Wilson had when he told the U.S the he was not involving British troops in the subjugation of Vietnam.

Isn't it simple? We are being had!

The now taken as read policy of cutting public services due to the massive debt has never been questioned by the many commentators or media outlets. This sudden rush to make the public services the whipping boy during the last election and the on going threat it poses to the nations future totally mystifies me. Has every one forgotten about the banking industry? The country did not suddenly fall into this uncontrollable financial nose dive overnight. The attack on the public services began being voiced only once the privatised banks had been bailed out with public money and we lesser beings were told that it would be the end of western civilisation if the banks were allowed to fail. Our very own Thunderbirds stand-in told us so, as did the 'Great Leader' of the time Mr Broon. If they had told people that as a result of giving Sir Fred and his like a hand up out of their gold-plated gutters we would be doing so at the expense of those in society most in need of help and assistance then I feel we would perhaps have taken our chances with the end of civilisation. Our newly elected (just) P.M is quite clear the cuts are going to change the way our society operates, well it's not David! it will change the way society operates for the most needy, for the rich and richer life will continue happily thank you very much! We've thrown the baby out with the bath water and it ain't coming back.