Brave questions

THERE has been a very interesting upsurge in support for our armed forces over the past year, what with the Military Wives Choir, the Help our Heroes charity, fund-raising dinners and sporting events. This, one might say, is all very good, and shows we are not forgetting our men and women in uniform. However, if one pauses briefly to examine the facts, it becomes rather curious.

All our armed forces are volunteers, who chose to join the military for many and various reasons, and are in many ways similar to other public-service workers. Obviously, their work is more dangerous than most, but that is their choice. Why should they suddenly want or deserve our support to the extent that any criticism is now deemed unpatriotic?

It seems to me that the more this unqualified support is given to the armed forces, the less is said about why they are in action in the first place.

When I was a child in the Sixties, the military was seen as a peace-keeping force around the world. We were protected by the nuclear “deterrent”, and the army, navy and air force were on hand to defend us, if needed. However, since the Falklands War, we seem to have been constantly fighting somebody, often in a decent cause, but nonetheless at war somewhere, although never in defence of ourselves.

We went to Afghanistan as a result of the 9/11 attacks on America, ostensibly in pursuit of al-Qaeda, who claimed responsibility for the attacks. Then, having failed to find Osama bin Laden, it transpired that we were fighting a fundamentalist sect in Afghanistan, the Taleban, who somehow were a terrorist threat to the United Kingdom, since they “sponsored” terrorism. It is now clear that al-Qaeda is a worldwide, disparate grouping, perhaps based in Pakistan, or perhaps not. Almost all terrorist attacks since 2001 have been organised from cells close to their perpetrators’ homes, not from Afghanistan. Centuries of history tell us that Afghans will not have peace, or indeed war, forced on them. So we must ask the basic question: what are we doing in Afghanistan?

I don’t think many people know why we are in Afghanistan, or what our objective is. In fact, I am not sure even the government knows. Eliminate the Taleban? Force democracy on Afghanistan? Stop the heroin trade? Help the Americans? When will it end? How will it end?

My purpose here is not in any way to traduce our armed forces. They are brave people, and I salute them. My worry is that, with such a surge of popular support, this whole mess could go on for years and years, with more deaths on both sides, and no-one will question the reason behind it.

Brian Bannatyne-Scott

Murrayfield Drive

Edinburgh

IT WAS frankly nauseating to see David Cameron on ITV’s Military Heroes Awards programme describing the actions of sailors off the Libyan coast firing automated weapons systems as “heroic”.

Politicians have always wrapped themselves in the flag, but all this overblown rhetoric did was to devalue the genuine heroism shown by some of our servicemen, such as those defusing explosive devices in Afghanistan.

Robert Cairns

Eastergate Cottage

Harrietfield

Perthshire