The Commentary

A new year and the war in Afghanistan rumbles on with the increasing body count of British soldiers. It reached 100 for this year in December.

We are told that the war is being fought to prevent the country reverting to extremist Muslim Taliban rule, who would again allow it to become a training ground for al-Qu’eda terrorists who will launch attacks on Britain.

Bankers and soldiers

Many people ask why our troops seem to be so under financed if the government is serious about winning against the Taliban.

Territorial Army soldier Andrew Fentiman was sadly shot dead two weeks after arriving in Afghanistan. He had told friends that his unit was ‘still waiting’ for body armour. This is just one of a great many such stories.

Last November there was the now famous phone call from Prime Minister Gordon Brown to Jacqui Janes apologising for mis-spelling her son’s name in his note of condolence for her son’s death in battle. Mrs. Janes said the lack of helicopters to lift the wounded to safety contributed to the tragedy. Her son bled to death before he could be got to hospital. But, in the telephone conversation, she asked the question which is in many minds. How is it that the government could find billions upon billions of pounds to bale out the banks when the credit crunch broke, but cannot provide the far smaller amount required to equip our soldiers properly?

Who knows the answer to this? I have yet to hear any politician give a satisfactory answer.

And that question came into even sharper focus with the recent revelation that HBOS and RBS were able to avail themselves of a covert Bank of England loan of a cool £61 billion at the height of the financial crisis in order to keep afloat.

Hearts and minds

Despite President Obama’s pledge of an extra 30,000 US troops at the beginning of December, actually winning in Afghanistan cannot be achieved by conflict. Writing in The Daily Telegraph, Christopher Booker pointed out that there has been a bitter civil war going on in the country for the last 300 years between the Durranis (the most settled population) and the traditionally nomadic Ghilzai, who are generally pro-Taliban. The present war is seen by the Ghilzai simply as the Durrani government of President Karzai seeking to impose its will on the country by the use of foreign forces, namely Western soldiers.

The West realises that, to obtain peace in Afghanistan, hearts and minds have to be changed. It thinks that the ideal of democracy will do the trick. But to many Muslims democracy is not of much standing. After all, in the West, democracy (manipulated by the media) has only brought godlessness and decadence. As one placard carried by a Muslim demonstrator said, ‘Europe is the cancer, Islam is the cure’.

Afghanistan needs the good news of Jesus Christ brought to it, but probably not by Western Christians. We must pray. God is able to raise up an indigenous church. We think of the rapid growth of the Chinese church long after the missionaries had gone. We think of the evident growth of the church in Iran despite the present persecution. And again there is wonderful news of churches being planted in many countries in central Asia by ex-Muslims (see next month’s EN). Nations are made of people and people can be won by the power of Christ. Let’s pray for Christ’s victory in Afghanistan.

Winning in Afghanistan

Bankers and soldiers

Hearts and minds

John Benton

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