700+ UK Lives Lost in Afghanistan

A terrible milestone of 700 UK service men and women have paid the ultimate price, and made the supreme sacrifice in Afghanistan since we were deployed there just a few years ago. It is a dreadful thing to lose any life in war, never mind 700! The news media, quite rightly paid a lot of attention to the war effort, and the part played by our brave military, both men and women, as they try to defeat an enemy which is almost unseen.


I don't want to get into an argument of whether the war in Afghanistan is just or unjust, or if we should be bringing our troops home now, or later. The thing that strikes me is the way we treat the word 'war'. This is not a numbers game, and neither is it played on games consoles of the Nintendo, or x-Box series. War is blood, lost limbs, shattered bones, broken bodies and psychological and emotional scars. Then there is the death of many. We seem to have missed some of that, and have come round to a way of thinking that war is somehow clean, and sanitised. We can kill from a distance, thus protecting ourselves from injury or death. We think we can be involved in a war from a safe way off, and without any loss of life. Our lives!


How do we come to think that 700 is a high number to be lost in a war? Between 1939 and 1945, the Russians lost 20 Million, yes 20 Million, Germany lost 7 Million, UK and USA 1 Million! In the context of these figures, where does Afghanistan stand? Does that make it a less just war? I don't think so. I think it is the attitude and resolve of the people who fought these battles that make the difference. They didn't have the benefit of Nintendo or Wii or X-Box, so they didn't think in terms of a bloodless war. They had the courage of conviction. We have lost that.


If we now had courage or convictions, we could make the correct judgement call to pull out of Afghanistan, or stay the course until the job is done. Until then, we play pretend computer games in our minds and delude ourselves into thinking we can have war without loss of life! Of course, the Taliban and Al Qaeda don't think like that, do they?