Six deaths in one incident in Afghanistan has taken the toll of UK dead to over 400 – alongside thousands of Afghans. Stop the War and Afghans for Peace have issued the following statements.
Six more British soldiers are missing presumed dead in Afghanistan after an explosion destroyed their vehicle in Helmand today. If they have died it will mean the number of British deaths has reached 404.
The recent increase in attacks on NATO forces, including in high security areas of Kabul, show NATO is losing what grip it had of the country. The last few weeks have also seen the most widespread anti NATO demonstrations since the occupation began against the burning of the Koran on military bases.
Popular opposition to occupation is rising and negotiations with the Karzai government are deadlocked. A NATO announcement of immediate withdrawal is the only way to resolve this disastrous situation.
The Afghan people must be allowed to chart their own futures. No more lives must be wasted in this doomed enterprise.
The killing must stop. The Occupation must end. Afghans for Peace statement by Mitra Qayoom.
The latest deaths mean that the total of British soldiers who have lost their lives in my country now stands at 404.
None of them should have died…and neither should the tens of thousands of Afghans who have lost their lives under the NATO occupation.
This and other recent events make it absolutely clear that this occupation must end if the killing is to stop.
On 21st February 2012, thousands of protesters gathered outside the US base in Bagram, Parwan province of Afghanistan.
This time the crowd gathered not because of an air raid that had left their children slaughtered and homes destroyed but because of the burning of the Holy Quran by NATO soldiers. Soon after the burning Leon Panetta the US defence secretary issued an apology. However, this time apologies are no longer enough.
Are Afghans only demonstrating due to the burning of the holy book? No, the outbursts are signs of years of frustration, which is ever increasing as a result of other war crimes committed by US/NATO, including the ‘kill team’ soldiers who killed civilians for fun and kept their body parts as trophies, US troops urinating on corps of Afghans and the rape of children by British soldiers.
The signs became even clearer when two US soldiers were shot in a secure building of the ministry. After almost eleven years of occupation, soldiers still show insensitivity towards Afghan culture and religion. The message is now obvious, the war is failing and the road to exit couldn’t look clearer.
The end game in Afghanistan has, it seems, come into view, and after all these fruitless, bloody years, it couldn’t be sadder. Saddest of all, so much of the blood spilled has been for purposes, if they ever made any sense, have long since disappeared into the fog of history.
