Tag Archives: Priti Patel

Spin Zhira

Nation Building doesn’t work

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11 Police Officers have been killed at a checkpoint in Lashka Ghar, the capital city of Helmand Province and the former citadel of Task Force Helmand.

Visited by Prime Minister David Cameron in 2012 it was once the epicentre of Britain’s £15m/day nation building mission to Afghanistan. It is a sad marker of failure that Lashka Ghar has been under siege since the summer of 2016 and would have fallen to the Taliban in October were it not for US military intervention.

Meanwhile, Sarah Sands, reporting for the Evening Standard reveals that Priti Patel the Secretary of State for International Development continues to describe the British mission in Afghanistan as ‘Nation Building’.

In January Prime Minister Theresa May told US Republicans the UK and America cannot return to “failed” military interventions “to remake the world in our own image”. She is, of course, correct. Two disastrous counter-insurgency interventions in Iraq and Afghanistan are clear evidence that nation building in our own image doesn’t work, but it seems the doctrine still stubbornly persists.

When will the Prime Minister communicate her message to the Department for International Development?

SPIN ZHIRA: Old Man in Helmand. A true story of love, service and incompetence. Guaranteed to make you laugh and cry or your money back (but check the smallprint first).

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Spin Zhira

Lashkar Gah under siege

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Reports from Islamabad indicate that the Taliban have stepped up their offensive on the strategically important city of Lashkar Gah in Helmand Province with fighting on several fronts.

Once the Task Force Helmand headquarters, and universally known simply as ‘Lash’ to British troops, it is an alarming marker of failure that the city formerly at the epicentre of the UK’s commitment in Afghanistan is now in danger of falling to the Taliban just two years after the British departed.

While Lash has been under siege for many weeks this new offensive comes just days after Priti Patel, the Secretary of State for International Development claimed: ‘The UK’s presence in Afghanistan over the last decade has helped improve security and prevent it from once again becoming a base of operations for global terrorists that would threaten the streets of Britain.’

SPIN ZHIRA: Old Man in Helmand is the unauthorised, unvarnished and irreverent story of one man’s midlife crisis on the front line of the most dangerous district in Afghanistan where the locals haven’t forgiven the British for the occupation of 1842 or for the Russian Invasion of 1979. Of course, all infidels look the same so you can’t really tell them apart.

Amazon Five Stars A JOURNEY OF LOVE, SERVICE AND ADVENTURE. EXCELLENT!

Amazon Five Stars A MODERN WARFARE LITERARY CLASSIC! OUTSTANDING READ.

Amazon Five Stars ENTERTAINING, THOUGHT-PROVOKING AND COMPULSORY TO READ.

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Dangerous and Regrettable

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Speaking to The Guardian, Neil MacGregor, the former director of the British Museum, has bemoaned Britain’s narrow view of its own history, calling it “dangerous and regrettable” for focusing almost exclusively on the “sunny side”.

Speaking before the Berlin opening of his highly popular exhibition Germany – Memories of a Nation, MacGregor expressed his admiration for Germany’s rigorous appraisal of its history which he said could not be more different to that of Britain.

This selective view is not just confined to our history but also our recent past and, worst still, our present.

In Afghanistan in 2012, we were all guilty of earnestly pronouncing progress and proclaiming ‘cautious optimism’ for the future. None more so than the Department for International Development (DfID). Even last week, Priti Patel, in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary claimed ‘The UK’s presence in Afghanistan over the last decade has helped improve security and… improved the lives of Afghans significantly’. 

It’s interesting that MacGregor contrasts the British approach to history with that of Germany. In September 1941 Joseph Goebbels wrote: ‘The English follow the principle that when one lies, one should lie big, and stick to it. They keep up their lies, even at the risk of looking ridiculous.’ 

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Modern Germany does not shy away from its Nazi past but, while it may or may not have been true at the time, Goebbels’ assertion now seems uncomfortably prescient.

SPIN ZHIRA: Old Man in Helmand is the unauthorised, unvarnished and irreverent story of one man’s midlife crisis on the front line of the most dangerous district in Afghanistan where the locals haven’t forgiven the British for the occupation of 1842 or for the Russian Invasion of 1979. Of course, all infidels look the same so you can’t really tell them apart.

Amazon Five Stars A JOURNEY OF LOVE, SERVICE AND ADVENTURE. EXCELLENT!

Amazon Five Stars A MODERN WARFARE LITERARY CLASSIC! OUTSTANDING READ.

Amazon Five Stars ENTERTAINING, THOUGHT-PROVOKING AND COMPULSORY TO READ.

Ten reasons why you should read SPIN ZHIRA.

Spin Zhira

She’s making it up (again)

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Britain has pledged $1 billion in aid to the Afghan government ahead of a major EU conference on Afghanistan in Brussels this week.

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In pledging the aid, Priti Patel the Secretary of State for International Development stated:
‘The UK’s presence in Afghanistan over the last decade has helped improve security and prevent it from once again becoming a base of operations for global terrorists that would threaten the streets of Britain. We have improved the lives of Afghans significantly – with millions more children in school, better healthcare, and greater prosperity.’

She’s talking complete nonsense of course. None of the improvements in healthcare, schooling and prosperity that she claims apply to the areas in which British troops were fighting. The UK’s presence in Afghanistan over the last decade has destabilised the entire region, is directly linked to the rise of Islamic State and has significantly increased the likelihood of a terror attack on the streets of Britain.

I shouldn’t be surprised. Only a few months ago she was travelling the streets of Britain with Boris Johnson in a bright red German bus pledging to ‘give our NHS the £350 million the EU takes every week’. A pledge that she and her fellow BREXITeers quietly dropped after the referendum.

Being economical with the truth does, however, make her an excellent choice to head up the Department for International Development (DfID), a department known to produce delusional progress reports in Afghanistan that were hopelessly optimistic and an almost complete work of fiction.

I can see from her ridiculous pronouncement that their new boss is going to fit right in.

SPIN ZHIRA: Old Man in Helmand is the unauthorised, unvarnished and irreverent story of one man’s midlife crisis on the front line of the most dangerous district in Afghanistan where the locals haven’t forgiven the British for the occupation of 1842 or for the Russian Invasion of 1979. Of course, all infidels look the same so you can’t really tell them apart.

Amazon Five Stars A JOURNEY OF LOVE, SERVICE AND ADVENTURE. EXCELLENT!

Amazon Five Stars A MODERN WARFARE LITERARY CLASSIC! OUTSTANDING READ.

Amazon Five Stars ENTERTAINING, THOUGHT-PROVOKING AND COMPULSORY TO READ.

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