Millions more turn against Afghan war

Gordon Brown's Afghan strategy lies in tatters. Millions of people want the troops brought home right now.

A growing number of military families are adding their voices to the anti-war movement as casualties are continuing to rise.

Lance Corporal Joe Glenton—a soldier who is refusing to fight in Afghanistan—was arrested and charged in connection with helping to lead the Stop the War demonstration on 24 October and speaking at the protest after being told this would be breaking orders.

The charges carry a maximum of ten years imprisonment, along with the threat of three to four years for desertion.

Army top brass are trying to scare soldiers into silence with the threat of prison sentences. But this will not change public opinion that this brutal war must end.

Brown’s strategy appears more threadbare than ever. Some 232 British soldiers have now been killed in Afghanistan – 95 this year alone. Public support for the war is at an all-time low.

Loyalists in Northern Ireland want to corral people into silence by saying any criticism of the war is being disloyal to the troops.

But many family members of serving soldiers have to send food parcels over to their sons and daughters so they can have enough to eat. The reality is that young men are being sent over to kill and be killed in a brutal war for empire.

The best way to ‘support the troops’ is to get them out of harm’s way: end the war and withdraw them now.

The war has only brought death, destruction and misery to Afghans and has only led to greater destabilisation in the region.

People are not convinced that the war is worth the blood of British forces or the Afghan people.

A recent BBC poll showed that 63 percent of British people want the troops brought home as quickly as possible.

Gordon Brown is desperately trying to argue that we need more troops and more years of bloody war to turn the situation around.

But since 2001, the war has lurched from one disaster to another. Meanwhile the stated aims of the war—to fight the “war on terror” and bring “democracy” to Afghanistan—have been lies. The farce of the recent elections showed that Karzai, the US and NATO-backed president, is completely illegitimate. He is only in power because of massive corruption backed by warlords and the occupying armies.

With unemployment reaching 60,000, Assembly politicians in Northern Ireland are happy to let the recession be a recruiting sergeant for the army. The money wasted on war would be better spent on creating jobs for young people.

Assembly politicians who are also threatening to cut 370 million from the public sector this year should instead demand that the war is ended and that the money saved is instead used to keep our public services going.