Afghanistan, the war that no two state officials can come up with the same reason for us being there. Afghanistan, a strip of land on this planet that has been steeped in blood for generations as two empires at different times have tried to make it their own and failed miserably. Afghanistan, a pointless slaughter of innocent people and it appears to be endless. What this costs in human suffering when we take in to account the dead on both sides of the slaughter and the countless physically and mentally damaged is something that is beyond measure.
Official figures are always on the conservative side as the war mongers try to down play the real extent of this avoidable tragedy, but even these conservative figures stand as an indictment against the state system and its endless wars to bolster the power of its corporate bed fellows.
For the UK the deaths have risen to 350, 350 young lives lost, 350 families and countless friends lashed by anguish and torment. Then there is those who come home, injured in various degrees both physically and mentally. The figures for UK injuries in Afghanistan for the second half of the of this invasion, 2006 to the end of 2010 is approximately 11,000, then add those suffering mental trauma, that could stay with them for the rest of their lives. Of course what doesn't get much coverage in the media is the deaths and injuries of Afghans, and it is not just those Afghans involved in the fighting, we are talking about innocent women, the aged and children. They have been suffering this sort of bloodshed since the Soviet occupation right through to the present ongoing Western Empire occupation, or should that be, attempted occupation. The West invaded Afghanistan in 2001 and a conservative figure of Afghan deaths since 2006 is put at approximately 7,000. That works out that, for the second have of this bloody campaign the Afghans have lost 20 times the total number British deaths for the entire ten years fighting. Who, with any human compassion can still say, this is a price worth paying?
Then of course there is the financial cost to the British people. Recent figures put the cost of the UK's Afghan excursion at £190 for every man, woman and child in the entire country, totalling a staggering £12 billion. At a time when the millionaire public school thugs are hacking away at our welfare system, such a total would provide around 23 new hospitals, we could fund an extra 77,000 new nurses or 60,000 new teachers and who knows what difference it would make to any other part of our social services. £12 billion for destruction, slaughter and misery, or £12 billion to improve the the fabric of our society. In this so called democracy, if you had a say, and you don't,yet, which would you choose??
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