Why Are We In Afghanistan?

Being governed by the witless management of the Blair/Brown gang is a dispiriting existence. This country has a built in Dunkirk spirit and will knuckle-down and get things done when the necessity is clear. Until then we will drift along and whinge. This awful government is so tied up in the bindings of its own spin - it believes its own propaganda - that rational decision making is impossible. No government statistics are believed - largely because claims are based on mathematics that involved dividing or multiplying by zero. But until the government faces up to reality on taxation and spending nothing is possible.
Government debt will continue to rise until Brown and Co [or their successors] draw up a credible plan to re-balance the books. This should be done sooner rather than later but one way or another it will be done. What is much more urgent is to resolve the matter of Afghanistan. Whatever Gordon Brown tells us, the fact remains that we are trying to do something in Afghanistan on the cheap and as a consequence our young men are being killed un-necessarily. I say "trying to do something in Afghanistan" because I have not the faintest idea what we are supposed to be doing in that country - if it is a country, even. Gordon Brown tells us that Afghanistan is the front line in the war against terrorists on the streets of Britain. This is nonsense. If we are concerned about turmoil in that region translating to bombs and killings in British towns and cities, then the front line is in Pakistan. But we can argue about this. What has to be made absolutely clear is exactly what our forces in Helman province and the Americans in the rest of Afghanistan are, specifically, trying to achieve. Then they must be given the men and resources to make achieving the objectives a realistic possibility. This will cost money. Either we find the money - NOW - or we get out - NOW. Inadequately resourced troops getting killed pointlessly is not an option.
The picture above is of Private Robbie Laws, 18 years old and killed last week on his first day of active duty in Afghanistan. In the last week there have been eight 18 year old soldiers killed. This cannot go on. If more men and machines are needed they must be provided. We stumped up almost limitless cash to support the banks - and allow them to carry on paying their staff obscene amounts of money but equipping our troops properly is, apparently, not possible. The scenario is made worse by the existence of grandiose plans to build a new nuclear deterrent system as well as two huge aircraft carriers, the purpose of which is, again obscure.
I would like to think that MPs would be insisting that these matters are sorted before they go off on holiday. But there seemed little evidence that this is likely when, yesterday, the defence secretary and his shadow carried on an exchange about Afghanistan with a largely empty Commons chamber. Perhaps they were all busy with their expenses?
/