Many of you may have missed a military announcement yesterday which unveiled Britain’s new secret weapon to fight the insurgents in Afghanistan; hair growth on the chin. Army commanders are recommending that new troops sent to the area should grow beards as this will ingratiate them with the locals (I assume he means the men) and encourage a degree of empathy. No wonder this little snippet has completely fallen of the news radar today, it is one of the most completely absurd government announcements I have ever come across. No wonder our over seas campaigns are in such a mess. Perhaps the best policy would be to actually remove ourselves from a war which unfortunately we have contributed to and continue to provoke by our mere presence.
In order to curtail comments that I have in fact made this story up, I have included a link below to a news site which expands on the issue.
http://news.monstersandcritics.com/uk/article_1179289.php/British_military_allows_beards_for_troops_in_Afghanistan
4 comments:
Peter - good to see you joining the blogosphere. How did tonight go at the CAF?
Sadly, I have to apend to my welcome some comment on the following:
"Perhaps the best policy would be to actually remove ourselves from a war which unfortunately we have contributed to and continue to provoke by our mere presence."
You are talking of Afghanistan here - how exactly did we 'provoke' this conflict? Are you asserting that the Taleban-backed Sep 11th attacks did not justify military action in response (widely accepted in international law)? What do you suggest a more appropriate response to Sep 11th would have been? Are you honestly asserting that Afghanistan, Britain, and the world as a whole is less secure because of Britain's 'contribution' in the overthrow of a mass-murdering terrorist-supporting regime?
Rather than being a 'hearts and minds' tactic, it's more likely due to typical government 'management' that razors are in short supply.
Next we'll hear that soldiers have stopped eating to fit in with the starving locals.
As far as Lewis Atkinson's 'Taleban-backed' Sept 11 statement goes, we provoked the conflict by invading Afghanistan on a dodgy pretence. The Taliban were ready to hand over Bin Laden if they were provided evidence, but Bush's demands went further than that.
Besides, most of the cash for the 911 folk came from Saudi supporters. We didn't see any 'daisy cutters' in action in Riyadh did we?
PS - great blog!
Phew, at last some comments. I honestly thought I was pressing the wrong buttons and my posts were disappearing into the equivalent of the www “twilight zone”. Here we go;
Hello Lewis, long time no hear. Your Mam once told me she was very (rightly) proud of you and the way you conducted your dignified campaign in the local council elections (don’t let it go to your head). Well you can be proud of your Mam. She was excellent at last nights CAF. For once there was more people present than the usual three men and a dog, but she remained composed and to the point. It’s nice to know that we are no longer lone voices. To Afghanistan, up till the attack on New York the country wasn’t even on the American radar. Then all of a sudden it was a haven and centre for international terrorism. More people die in the USA through drug abuse in one year than were killed on September 11th, yet the Americans never considered bombing the country were the majority of these drugs came from, Afghanistan. Why, because drugs money in America oils the wheels of industry in a country that needs its dollars to circulate outside the normal tax system i.e. proceeds from drugs dealing. The invasion was a knee jerk reaction to appease public demands for action, and now were all paying the price. One more thing, beore you ask, yes I am still pursuing that certain issue that we once talked about at length during the last election!
To Rossinisbird, thank you for the compliment, I have enjoyed your sight as well. I particularly appreciated your exchange with Councillor David Potts (see my post 30.03.07).
Hopefully you will both keep in touch, we can’t have that Curly hogging the light all the time (though I must admit he does remain somewhat the “elder statesmen” of political and cultural blogging in our area and beyond, the equivalent of say Tony Benn. Do you think that will annoy him?)
Upset me, bloody hell I even had a pipe in the days when I did smoke!
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