Saturday, June 15, 2013

Brit DefMin Concedes - Afghanistan Is Our Vietnam


British Defence Secretary, Philip Hammond, says the miserable war in Afghanistan has been his country's Vietnam.

Britain is experiencing a ''Vietnam phenomenon'' as the mission draws to a close, the Defence Secretary said in an interview during a trip to Afghanistan.

His candid assessment comes as Britain tries to wind down its mission in Afghanistan at the same time as Western leaders edge towards greater military intervention in Syria.

''I suspect that the British people - and not just the British people - will be wary of enduring engagements on this kind of scale for perhaps quite a long while,'' he said.

Speaking at Camp Bastion, the main British base in Helmand province, Mr Hammond said: ''You might call it the Vietnam phenomenon: when an engagement turns out to be longer and more costly than originally envisaged, there is often a public reaction to that.''
You're right, Phil.  There's also a public reaction to a war to prop up a criminal enterprise running a failed, narco-state that drags on interminably, squandering lives and treasure, without any hope of success of any description.

Who should be held to account for this?  We could begin with the military leadership who lied us into this war with empty promises of what they could do.   Where is the long safely-retired Randy "The Big Cod" Hillier these days?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

From the Guardian,

Just a quarter of Britons back Hague on arming rebels in Syria

Poll shows 78% think the military is tied up after Afghan and Iraqi conflicts

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/01/syria-hague-arms-intervention-military

Anonymous said...

Britain's Christian Crusader says his piece;

Tony Blair calls for west to intervene in Syria conflict

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/15/tony-blair-west-intervene-syria

Looking for ways to put that bedroom tax to good use?

Anonymous said...

Don't know about the bedroom tax, but Bliar is rumoured to have put the bedroom to good use with Rupert Murdoch's wife!

Of course, he denies all that, just as he denies lying Britain into a war of aggression in Iraq.