Sunday, 13 May 2012 18:36

Written by Lindsey German

The only answer which the US and its allies have to failing wars is to keep pouring money into them and hope for the best, argues Lindsey German.

The criminality and cynicism of politicians who prolong the war in Afghanistan despite its patent failure has claimed more victims.

The deaths of two British soldiers, at the hands of Afghan police, cruelly underlines the failure and futility of the war being conducted by Nato forces. The statement by UK defence minister Phillip Hammond that these soldiers "sacrificed" their lives "for our own national security", is simply not true.

These soldiers died because the British government would rather continue fighting an unjustified war that is being lost than admit that after eleven years nothing has been achieved but mass slaughter and destruction.

It would rather sacrifice the lives of British soldiers than end its slavish support for all the US-led wars that have been so catastrophic for the countries invaded and have made the world ever more unstable and insecure.

Every soldier killed in Afghanistan dies at the hands of the British government's refusal to face reality or to do what the overwhelming majority of people in this country want: end the war now and bring the troops home.

The whole strategy of NATO is to train the Afghan police and army to take over from the occupiers by the supposed withdrawal date of 2014.

Yet deaths of NATO soldiers at the hands of these same security forces is growing.

The failure of the strategy is underlined by the deal made between Barack Obama and Afghanistan's president Karzai to maintain US troops and bases there for at least another decade after the official date for leaving.

The agreement is a tacit recognition that the government there and its supporters cannot rely on their police and army to maintain power. It is also an acknowledgement that attempted talks with the Taliban are not succeeding, while at the same time it is not being defeated militarily.

The only answer which the US and its allies have to failing wars is to keep pouring money into them and hope for the best.

Obama's award of the Nobel Peace Prize looks beyond satire as he authorises drone attacks across south Asia and the Middle East, maintains an occupation which a majority of his own population -- as well as millions of Afghans -- do not want, and continues to impose sanctions and threaten intervention in Iran and Syria.

This week NATO will hold a summit in Chicago where Obama and the NATO leaders will try to persuade the new French president, Francois Hollande, to renege on an election promise to pull French troops out by the end of this year. Even though they are in a hole, they keep on digging.

There will be a major demonstration in Chicago to protest at the NATO summit. And in London we will be outside the US embassy on Saturday 19 May demanding No to NATO, troops out and no intervention in the Middle East.

From Stop the War Coalition site.