Why Are We Continuing to Wage War in Afghanistan and Why Are We Silent Regarding Spiritual Issues?
It is upsetting and distressing and this has been my reaction for many months now as I have watched the coffins return from Afghanistan containing the bodies of British Servicemen killed in this on-going conflict or war.
It is a regular feature on our news bulletins.
We watch the undertaker's moving and tearful procession through Wootton Bassett where the pavements are lines with men and women and children paying their last respects to the deceased soldiers.
We are reliably informed that for every soldier killed there are some four seriously injured and the hospitals appear to support that premise.
But why? Why is this war continuing? I wrote twice to Gordon Brown when he became Prime Minister and never received an acknowledgment.
When he took over from Tony Blair what a moment that would have been to bring the troops back home! For some time there has been the suggestion that there should be talks with the Taliban and I was not against that.
Not if it was going to bring this bloody conflict to an end.
What were we told a few days ago? I was astonished to hear this read out on our new programmes.
The Taliban in Afghanistan have told the BBC that there is no question of their entering into any kind of negotiations with NATO forces.
This comes after US commanders and the British army chief of staff, Gen David Richards, suggested that it might be useful to talk to the Taliban.
The Taliban statement is uncompromising, almost contemptuous.
They believe they are winning the war, and cannot see why they should help NATO by talking to them.
They assume, perhaps wrongly, that the Americans are in disarray after the sacking of the NATO commander Gen Stanley McChrystal, a few weeks ago,and regard any suggestion that they should enter negotiations with them as a sign of NATO's own weakness.
In June, they point out, there has been the highest number of NATO deaths in Afghanistan.
There have been 102 deaths, an average of more than three a day.
Why should we talk if we have the upper hand, and the foreign troops are considering withdrawal, and there are differences in the ranks of our enemies? A trusted intermediary conveyed a series of questions from the NATO leadership to Zabiullah Mujahid, the acknowledged spokesman for the Afghan Taliban leadership.
Below is his reply which we are told is accurate.
"We do not want to talk to anyone; not to President Hamid Karzai, nor to any foreigners, till the foreign forces withdraw from Afghanistan.
We are certain that we are winning.
Why should we talk if we have the upper hand, and the foreign troops are considering withdrawal?" There is an instinctive and widespread dislike of having foreign troops, and especially non-Muslim ones, based in Afghanistan, and the dislike of occupying forces goes very deep.
The new commander General Petraeus, who takes over control of the NATO forces in Afghanistan, has an exceedingly challenging task.
He has actually warned 'the west' of an escalation of violence and increase in the number of casualties.
Writing as a Christian my concern grows.
We heard only this week that President Karzai is opposing and on the point of persecuting committed Christians, and there has not been a word about this on mainline new programmes.
Why is The White House in Washington, and Downing Street, London, so silent about this? Why are we continuing to wage war in Afghanistan? Why are we risking the lives of our young military personnel when it looks as if there is no possibility of us winning? There comes that point where 'enough is enough' and we return home from circumstances in which we ought never to have been in the first place! Why have we invaded this foreign country, because that is what we have done? We are told that we are busy training the local population for service in the Army and Police.
Some cannot read and write.
Some are taking drugs, and we are giving weapons to these men.
Sandy Shaw
It is a regular feature on our news bulletins.
We watch the undertaker's moving and tearful procession through Wootton Bassett where the pavements are lines with men and women and children paying their last respects to the deceased soldiers.
We are reliably informed that for every soldier killed there are some four seriously injured and the hospitals appear to support that premise.
But why? Why is this war continuing? I wrote twice to Gordon Brown when he became Prime Minister and never received an acknowledgment.
When he took over from Tony Blair what a moment that would have been to bring the troops back home! For some time there has been the suggestion that there should be talks with the Taliban and I was not against that.
Not if it was going to bring this bloody conflict to an end.
What were we told a few days ago? I was astonished to hear this read out on our new programmes.
The Taliban in Afghanistan have told the BBC that there is no question of their entering into any kind of negotiations with NATO forces.
This comes after US commanders and the British army chief of staff, Gen David Richards, suggested that it might be useful to talk to the Taliban.
The Taliban statement is uncompromising, almost contemptuous.
They believe they are winning the war, and cannot see why they should help NATO by talking to them.
They assume, perhaps wrongly, that the Americans are in disarray after the sacking of the NATO commander Gen Stanley McChrystal, a few weeks ago,and regard any suggestion that they should enter negotiations with them as a sign of NATO's own weakness.
In June, they point out, there has been the highest number of NATO deaths in Afghanistan.
There have been 102 deaths, an average of more than three a day.
Why should we talk if we have the upper hand, and the foreign troops are considering withdrawal, and there are differences in the ranks of our enemies? A trusted intermediary conveyed a series of questions from the NATO leadership to Zabiullah Mujahid, the acknowledged spokesman for the Afghan Taliban leadership.
Below is his reply which we are told is accurate.
"We do not want to talk to anyone; not to President Hamid Karzai, nor to any foreigners, till the foreign forces withdraw from Afghanistan.
We are certain that we are winning.
Why should we talk if we have the upper hand, and the foreign troops are considering withdrawal?" There is an instinctive and widespread dislike of having foreign troops, and especially non-Muslim ones, based in Afghanistan, and the dislike of occupying forces goes very deep.
The new commander General Petraeus, who takes over control of the NATO forces in Afghanistan, has an exceedingly challenging task.
He has actually warned 'the west' of an escalation of violence and increase in the number of casualties.
Writing as a Christian my concern grows.
We heard only this week that President Karzai is opposing and on the point of persecuting committed Christians, and there has not been a word about this on mainline new programmes.
Why is The White House in Washington, and Downing Street, London, so silent about this? Why are we continuing to wage war in Afghanistan? Why are we risking the lives of our young military personnel when it looks as if there is no possibility of us winning? There comes that point where 'enough is enough' and we return home from circumstances in which we ought never to have been in the first place! Why have we invaded this foreign country, because that is what we have done? We are told that we are busy training the local population for service in the Army and Police.
Some cannot read and write.
Some are taking drugs, and we are giving weapons to these men.
Sandy Shaw