Afghanistan 'not a fight to the death'

[swamp]

David Miliband: Afghanistan 'not a fight to the death'

"Our goal is not to fight to the death. It is to demonstrate clearly that they cannot win and to provide a way back into their communities for those who are willing to live peacefully."

"If you're playing football and you want to make sure you don't concede any goals, the answer is not to put all of your players on the goal line - that's not a way to prevent the other side scoring goals.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/news...the-death.html


I thought a 'war' was a fight to the death. It's not a 'fight until someone gets a bit hurt then we stop', especially against the Taliban who will really fight to the death.

I'm also not encouraged by Milliband's football tactics.

[hyperD]

You'll see more of this over the next 6 months. Political spin to soften the blow when the lack of funds will bring the lads back home just in time for Gordon's slaughter.

An unwinnable war, supporting a corrupt regime - a fecking disgrace.

[Paddy]

What a load of bollocks coming the mouths of politicians. Every week a new excuse for being in Afghanistan and none of them to do with a gas pipeline.

Last week we had speeches on how far progress had be made. The truth is that since the UK has been in Afghanistan 40% of UK casualties have occurred in the past twelve months.


http://icasualties.org/oef/

Coalition Military Fatalities By Year
Year US UK Other Total
2001 12 0 0 12
2002 49 3 17 69
2003 48 0 9 57
2004 52 1 7 60
2005 99 1 31 131
2006 98 39 54 191
2007 117 42 73 232
2008 155 51 89 295
2009 290 97 85 472
Total 920 234 365 1519

[BoredBloke]

What a load of bollocks coming the moths of politicians. Every week a new excuse for being in Afghanistan and none of them to do with a gas pipeline.

Last week we had speeches on how far progress had be made. The truth is that since the UK has been in Afghanistan 40% of UK casualties have occurred in the past twelve months.


http://icasualties.org/oef/

Coalition Military Fatalities By Year
Year US UK Other Total
2001 12 0 0 12
2002 49 3 17 69
2003 48 0 9 57
2004 52 1 7 60
2005 99 1 31 131
2006 98 39 54 191
2007 117 42 73 232
2008 155 51 89 295
2009 290 97 85 472
Total 920 234 365 1519

And we are only in week 47 of 2009, meaning there is still about 10% of the year to go. So that 97 will probably be joined by another 10 poor sods before New Years Day

[threaded]

Oddly enough, as the classically educated will testify (fnar fnar), 'war' is a quite modern word.

War is, quoting Clausewitz, 'politics by other means'. He also says each generation has it's own kind of war and preconceptions as to what war is..