Again….the man is addicted to telling untruths.

Gordon Brown clearly stated today in PMQ’s to the House of Commons that Britain has the second largest military expenditure in the World.

If you don’t know the facts Gordon PLEASE don’t treat us as fools.  Don’t make statements on the cuff.  We are owed more than this constant bullshit.

Quick research shows that….

We must never forget.

I have today been watching the returning British Soldiers who recently died in Afghanistan.  I feel deeply moved, helpless and upset about their losses and wanted to say a small thank you and come up with a tiny tribute.

Putting politics to one side, we must never forget all the brave men and women who risked and lost their lives in the conflict in Afghanistan.  We must never forget the hurt their families and loved ones feel.  And we must support them with whatever they need.

As we live in the shadow of the protection these men & women have provided us….we owe them so much.

As you look at the photos below never forget what they gave.  Thank you seems too hollow for them to have given so much.

As a tribute, I cant find words, but hopefully words are not needed, just a tribute of pictures of those British Troops who have lost their lives since 2001 in Afghanistan.  All the soldiers details can be found here: http://tiny.cc/itWSU.  As ever, the reporting of The Daily Telegraph hits the dignified note of these men and women.

As the crisis in Afghanistan deepens, the more the spotlight falls on Bob Ainsworth, the Defence Secretary.  I must say that I have never really given much attention or time to Bob in the past.  But of late he has been a regular on TV and of course in answering questions in the House.

NEVER have I seen such a Minister out of his depth as Bob so patently is.  It is distressing to see a grown man drowning in a role that is so obviously beyond him.

Coupled with his incompetence is his dull personality.  When speaking about the death of our soldiers he comes across as totally uncaring and insensitive to the families who have lost loved ones.  At times this past week I have thought what an uncaring bastard as he refutes that the armed forces don’t have enough numbers and dont have the right equipment.  Obviously he has a Government line to spin but the tone he uses and style he presents information is clumsy and insensitive. 

Bob Ainsworth needs to go.  Gordon must either sack him or media pressure hound him from his post.  Our armed forces and their families deserve better than Ainsworth.

At times, I almost expect to hear Bob shout, ‘My Arse’, when being interviewed!

Bob Ainsworth and Jim Royle…long long brothers…..

In the past 12 years the British military have seen more action than at any other time since the Second World War.   In that time Gordon Brown and New Labour have been savage in cutting back expenditure.

Our brave squaddies live in slum barracks which are often rat infested. They have been provided with shoddy equipment and we have even asked them to buy their own boots.  How does that sit on your conscience?  It sits badly on mine.

We have provided them in Afghanistan with flimsy ’snatch’ Land Rovers instead of heavily armoured trucks and helicopters which could save them from lethal roadside bombs.  Our troops travel in road convoys, exposed to attack as our US friends travel overhead in helicopters.

And get this statistic.  America has EIGHT times as many helicopters for every serving soldier, compared to Britain.

Soldiers fight and risks their lives to drive Taliban out of villages and towns, only to hand captured territory back because they do not have the numbers or air cover to hold their ground.

If this war is so important Gordon….why have you not committed more troops to the campaign to ensure our boys gains on the battlefield are secure….not to be handed back to the Taliban a few days later because of lack of manpower?

If this war is so important Gordon…why have you not invested in protecting our troops and ensuring they have more helicopters and armoured vehicles?

Sending troops into battle, to die for our country, deserves whatever support we can provide them.

By not preparing our troops Gordon, you have blood on your hands……like Macbeth that will come back to haunt you…..

President Obama has conceded in an interview with Adam Boulton on Sky News that a fresh review of Afghanistan strategy will be needed….after planned Afghanistan elections.  Obama was full of praise for the British troops and Britain’s ‘extraordinary contribution’ and felt the pain of loss at their death.  But he stated that the UK were more at threat than the USA from the Taliban and terrorists.  He raised the prospect that terrorists would be at pains to cause atrocities in London and that this was not just a USA war but a world war that the British needed to play a critical role.

So let’s take a look at the regime we are defending with British lives….the presidential election is due to be held on August 20th. This will be the country’s 2nd democratic election. The previous 2004 Afghan election was held on October 9, 2004, whereby President Hamid Karzai won thus granting him a five-year term ending this October.

The elections are all set.  On March 11, 2009, NATO officials announced that 15.6 million voters had registered to vote, roughly 50% of the country’s population. 35 to 38 percent of the registered voters are women.

These are the women that many are currently being ‘raped’.  President Karzai only recently signed a law the UN states legalizes rape in marriage and prevents women from leaving the house without permission.  The law, which has not been publicly released, is understood to state women can only seek work, education or doctor’s appointments with their husband’s permission.  Opponents of this law governing the personal lives of Afghanistan’s Shia minority have said it is “worse than during the Taliban”. 

How can women be demoted to such second class citizens?  Political analysts state that President Karzai is electioneering at the expense of women’s rights by signing the law to win crucial votes from Shia swing voters in this year’s presidential poll.  While the Afghan constitution guarantees equal rights for women, it also allows the Shia community, (10 per cent of the population), the right to settle family law cases according to Shia law. 

So, nice start….women are demoted to ‘slave’ status….what about the rest of the Government and state of the country?  Sorry to say, Karzai’s government is corrupt, muddled, and feeble. It is rapidly losing authority both in the Pashtun regions of the country, where most of the armed opposition to the Kabul authorities and the coalition forces is found, and in the still relatively peaceful non-Pashtun areas.

As stated on this blog many times, drugs drive the economy.  After the Taliban were overthrown in 2001 there was a lot of confidence about planned agricultural and industrial projects. Some of the promised aid & help aid has never been delivered, and much has been just frittered away and wasted.

Now as Obama states this is not a US led war….for him it is important to be seen as the USA being a part of a global alliance.  The unity of the Nato forces tasked to defeat the Taliban is quite frankly a joke.  Most of the countries supporting the US and Britain have sent their forces to lurk and hide in uncontested parts of the country.  This allows their Government’s to show they are playing their part but remaining popular at home as they keep costs low….both in terms of money and casualties!

And there goes the problem…….war is expensive both in terms of cash and deaths of soldiers.  Britain has suffered 15 deaths in 10 days and that is a terrific price to pay.  The cost is also crippling, especially in a recession.  £2.5 billion.  Many soldiers are also questioning the military tactics employed…… especially by the American forces, (which Britain depends on).  Some of these tactics are highly dubious eg the use of an air arm that sometimes finds it hard to differentiate between the enemy gathering for an attack and ordinary people gathering for a wedding!

Most challenging of all is the question of geography and territory creep.  This war is spreading across different borders. At the start of this war al-Qaida and the Taliban fled Afghanistan to find sanctuary in Pakistani villages.   But fast forward to today and that very Taliban and terrorist groupings have been eroding Islamabad’s control of the tribal areas and today the possibility of the possible defeat, or at least the retreat, of Pakistani armed forces in their own country is a reality.  That is a scary reality….and far worse than the situation we initially faced at the start of this war.

So who is likely to win the Presidential election?  While Afghans on the street openly complain about Karzai’s rule, surveys show he is likely to win a second term….why?….because his opponents have almost no support. A May poll found that 31 percent of 3,200 Afghans surveyed said they would vote for Karzai if the Aug. 20 presidential election were held today — NB he won 55 % support in the 2004 poll….that’s a big drop in support.  But Karzai would be happier to know that the poll showed that: 69 percent of respondents had a favorable opinion of him, and 43 % of likely voters said he deserves a second term. Now here is the fascinating stat:  only 7 % said they would vote for Karzai’s closest competitor, Abdullah Abdullah. The next strongest opponent, Ashraf Ghani, had just 4 % support.

So, this interesting insight clearly shows that we face big issues and that the Afghanistani people also need to start putting their own house in order….they are a long way from doing that…..and we are a long way from removing our troops from Afghanistan…….what a mess!

Our economy is in a sick state.  Public debt is our cancerous growth which threatens to make us the sick man of Europe again.

As we review costs, maybe now is the time to review Trident and for OUR Party to place this on the Political Agenda.  But not for cost reasons…for political reasons…..(although saving £76 billion is a nice slice off the national debt, to go with the £45 billion for the ID Card Scheme).

Barack Obama has called for a nuclear proliferation summit for Spring 2010.  The language is softer…the goals clear.

Yes our goal must be to reduce nuclear weapons to the barest minimum but we reduce by ‘collective action’ and not unilaterally.  No unilateral cuts in our submarines or 160 warheads but that does not mean we cant discuss upgrade & cost reduction.

Obama is offering the world real cuts in nuclear stockpiles.  Russia and the USA have already agreed fresh reductions.  Obama says any future deals would involve nuclear powers reducing their stockpiles and offering civilian nuclear know-how to non-nuclear states in return for them promising not to develop nuclear weapons. 

Russia’s biggest concern is the missile defence system that Reagan started, in Europe, aka ‘Star Wars’.  Providing Europe and the USA the umbrella of defence against attack.  Initially attack was deemed to come from the Soviet Union / Russia but now that threat is defined as from rogue nuclear nations, typically Iran.  Now this is a fascinating game of brinkmanship.  Obama says to Russia, help us stop Iran getting nuclear weapons and there is no need for our missile defence system.  Clever.  (But of course Iran is not the only rogue state. Don’t forget North Korea who are desperate to build a bomb….and no doubt would not hesitate to fire against their Southern neighbours……and the Pakistan regime is so brittle that who is to say that the Taliban don’t topple it in x period of time).

Will we ever see a world free from nuclear weapons?  No.  Because you cannot uninvent the technology for these weapons.  The moment a conflict arises then the arms race starts again.  This is not the case if minimal numbers of nuclear weapons are kept.  Minimal is the key word and definition of.

So returning to the issue of Trident upgrade.  In this current environment of a willingness to reduce weapons….what message does it send out for Great Britain to be investing in upgrading its nuclear weapons when stockpiles are being reduced.  It’s like calling for a smoking ban while lighting up a huge havana…..not the best message.

Maybe it is time that the Conservatives predicted this issue and seized the agenda on the grounds of joining the Obama agenda of reducing nuclear stockpiles across the world and upgrading does not send the best message out to our friends and neighbours…and to those states wanting a bomb.  Imagine the UK saying….’Sorry…..we dont want you to have a bomb but we will upgrade our stockpile’…….a hypocrites charter. 

Go to it Liam Fox this is your weekend to seize the political agenda on Afghanistan and also Trident upgrade.