Afghanistan.

[Holly]

Able Seaman....Kate Nesbit has been awarded the Military Cross for bravery in Afghanistan, after sprinting 70 meters under fire to save a soldier who had been shot in the neck. She, Kate is the first female to receive this award...Cat

WELL DONE KATE
 

[oisin]

Cat, just a slight correction; she's the second female but first female sailor to win the award. Not bad for someone who looks no older than 14 to me.

[Holly]

Thank you for the correction Oisin...Cat

[John 2000]

You see, after all thats said and done, we still have the best..J2

[Beryl McMullen]

For the dead in Afghanistan, time has stood still while history marches on. . . .

 Dead American British and Canadian soldiers are buried each week. The names of the latest to be interred are still being carved into marble headstones.
For now, a ‘temporary grave marker’ of white card marks their final resting places. Over the course of the coming months and years, the sodden earth will be filled with more young men and women –

Now more troops will be sent to fight and die in this never ending war -

[John 2000]

why do our people get killed fighting some one elses war, maybe it because of the pipe line that will go through the country when the war is over, and can you gess who will own that pipe line...?

[Beryl McMullen]

Yes , John -  Canada is supposed to pull out of Afghanistan by 2011, but we shall see. . .  The US has its design on owning the Trans-Afghanistan Natural Gas Pipeline now being developed because it will transport Caspian Sea natural gas from Turkmenistan through Afghanistan into Pakistan and then to to India.

The US found an excuse to go into Afghanistan by saying they are there to fight terrorism.  This is that our young soldiers are dying for – a country’s power and greed. . . It makes me sick. . .

[oisin]

I first heard this poem as a song by Joan Baez. It was, I think, written by a conscript in some Latin American army but I feel it's relevant to all...

La Colombe / The Dove

"Why all these bugles crying
for squads of young men drilled
To kill and to be killed
and waiting by this train

Why the orders loud and hoarse,
why the engine's groaning cough
As it strains to drag us off
into the holocaust

Why crowds who sing and cry
and shout and fling us flowers
And trade their right for ours
to murder and to die

. The dove has torn her wings so no more songs of love
. We are not here to sing, we're here to kill the dove

Why has this moment come
when childhood has to die
When hope shrinks to a sigh
and speech into a drum

Why are they pale and still,
young boys trained overnight
Conscripts forced to fight
and dressed in grey to kill

These rain clouds massing tight,
this trainload battle bound
This moving burial ground
sent thundering toward the night


Why statues towering brave
above the last defeat
Old word and lies repeat
across the new made grave

Why the same still birth
that victory always brought
These hoards of glory bought
by men with mouths of earth


Dead ash without a spark
where cities glittered bright
For guns probe every light
and crush it in the dark

And why your face undone
with jagged lines of tears
That gave in those first years
all peace I ever won

Your body in the gloom,
the platform fading back
Your shadow on the track,
a flower on a tomb

And why these days ahead
when I must let you cry
And live prepared to die
as if our love were dead

. The dove has torn her wings so no more songs of love
. We are not here to sing, we're here to kill the dove."


"Why all these bugles crying
for squads of young men drilled
To kill and to be killed
and waiting by this train

Why the orders loud and hoarse,
why the engine's groaning cough
As it strains to drag us off
into the holocaust

Why crowds who sing and cry
and shout and fling us flowers
And trade their right for ours
to murder and to die

. The dove has torn her wings so no more songs of love
. We are not here to sing, we're here to kill the dove

Why has this moment come
when childhood has to die
When hope shrinks to a sigh
and speech into a drum

Why are they pale and still,
young boys trained overnight
Conscripts forced to fight
and dressed in grey to kill

These rain clouds massing tight,
this trainload battle bound
This moving burial ground
sent thundering toward the night


Why statues towering brave
above the last defeat
Old word and lies repeat
across the new made grave

Why the same still birth
that victory always brought
These hoards of glory bought
by men with mouths of earth


Dead ash without a spark
where cities glittered bright
For guns probe every light
and crush it in the dark

And why your face undone
with jagged lines of tears
That gave in those first years
all peace I ever won

Your body in the gloom,
the platform fading back
Your shadow on the track,
a flower on a tomb

And why these days ahead
when I must let you cry
And live prepared to die
as if our love were dead

. The dove has torn her wings so no more songs of love
. We are not here to sing, we're here to kill the dove."

[Beryl McMullen]

You have hit the nail on the head. for  the song is very apropriate Paul

[Holly]

Man....(I use the word loosely of course)....on a mission. Anjem Choudary....I realise to mention his name merely adds to his craving for publicity, and i apologise for that....May i suggest that he holds his march in Afghanistan and not in the country that has given him succour...Cat

[Beryl McMullen]

While the conflict in Iraq lessens - the conflict in Afghanistan rises The Taliban, regrouping control most of the country outside the main towns.

Britain has been there before, and this time it isn’t any different because as the allies pour money and resources into Afghanistan, the Taliban fighters will simply fade away only to re-emerge elsewhere, into some other conflict.

Punishments in the name of religion just boggles my mind - like the Witch Hunts in  medieval times. . .   

Like Soraya M, just before dawn they took her, dragging her screaming from her bed – her family begged, but they dug a hole in the sand, tethered her so she couldn’t move in that dying place –

Her head held eye high she looks her accusers in the eye –The crowd heckled as the Mullah recited crimes for which she had to die – BEING A WOMAN, she held her dignity- knowing  they would show no mercy she looks to the skies as the first stone struck . . . . .

[oisin]

In general I regard him as a pretentious tater but Chris de Burgh did write one song that I tjought very relevant to the futility of war...

Last Night

Last night I was walking through the harbour
Where the fishing boats are lying on the shore,
The news had travelled fast and everyone went to be
Where the mayor was making a speech,
And the crowd started cheering
When he talked about the glory of it all,
And the boys coming home from the war;

Last night, they were dancing in the streets
And making music in the alleyways and bars,
From a house down in the old town came the sound of guitars,
Margarita was waiting inside,
With her long black hair hanging down beneath the red light,
And she smiled, for the boys coming home from the war,
The boys coming home from the war;

And they said we were heroes, they said we were fine,
We were kings in command, we had God on our side,
And we said "nothing will make us change in any way,
Since yesterday - we're just the same,
Since yesterday - nothing has changed,
Since yesterday - we're just the same,"
But I can feel there's a new kind of hunger inside,
To be satisfied, I saw it there last night;

Last night I was walking through the shadows
Far away from all the music and the girls,
When I saw a soldier waiting with a woman in black,
And they stood without any word,
Just staring at a photograph of someone, and she began to cry.
For a boy left behind in the war,
Some boy left behind in the war;

And they said we were heroes, they said we were fine,
We were kings in command, we had God on our side,
And we said "nothing will make us change in any way,
Since yesterday - we're just the same,
Since yesterday - nothing has changed,
Since yesterday - we're just the same,"
But I can feel there's this new kind of hunger inside,
To be satisfied, I saw it there last night...

[Beryl McMullen]

Question people are asking - Why are we sending more combat troops in support to the new counterinsurgency plan to help fight the Taliban and Al Qaeda forces in Afghanistan along the Pakistan border? –

Why? When we have been there for over seven years now and still having major problems -This is an undeclared war and the Taliban didn’t cause 911? 

War is big business
 
Iraq = Blood for Oil
Afganistan = Blood for Dope 

Meanwhile -Governments 
Just tread Water and Burn our Tax Dollars. 

[Holly]

Another Military Cross....Private 18 year old Alex Kennedy.... Mercian regiment rifleman ...from Bromsgrove.
He had served for only eight months when he braved Taliban fire to save a shot officer at a battle in Helmand  province.

[oisin]

What a twist from the Vietnam war when the conscripted US "grunts" used to shoot their officers.