The 23rd October marked Trafalgar Day.
To mark the day a speech was given by several high ranking military figures.
I have noted 2 of the speakers.
Surprised no one else pointed their comments out.
General Sir David Richards, Chief of the General Staff :
"This is a war that needs to be fought and can be won.....we haven't sold it very well and we need to do better."
"If the Afghan people asked us to go tomorrow, we would have to go. We are there under a United Nations mandate."
"If we give up Afghanistan tomorrow, I absolutely guarantee you that if you are an al Qaeda memeber or Taleban, they will pour back into southern Afghanistan and they will have the freedom to plan and train and conduct operations which now they don't have."
"General McChrystal talks about 2013 (for a pull out of troops). The Chief of the Defence Staff and I have said that's pretty challenging. Being cautious military men, we're talking about 2014."
Admiral Sir Mark Stanhope, First Sea Lord and Chief of Naval Staff :
Afghanistan must not be "the template for a future UK defence structure that can do nothing but more Afghanistans.....the range of threats to UK interests is greater than that."
I read these remarks and never got round to doing anything with them, perhaps because I thought the first one was propaganda - I still do.
ReplyDeleteRosie,
ReplyDeleteI think each comment actually has a bit of a go at the government, UK policy and government comments.
Each 1 at a quick read is quite PC, but reading each 1 a couple of times, and well my mind started to change a wee bit.