Apparently it was God who told George W Bush to invade Afghanistan, the same deity as Allah in whose name the Taliban is now rampaging through the country.
And the same God Tony Blair was confident was on his side as he helped unleash hell on Afghanistan.
In 2003, addressing a Palestinian delegation, Bush said: “I am driven with a mission from God. God would tell me, ‘George, go and fight these terrorists in Afghanistan’.
“And I did. And then God would tell me, ‘George, go and end the tyranny in Iraq’. And I did.”
God is a lethal force in the wrong hands.
It was also God who told Bush to give up his addiction to alcohol but it turned out it was safer for all of us when he was drunk on booze instead of religion.
Of course George and Tony didn’t “go and fight” anyone, they sent in soldiers, largely from the schemes and the hicksvilles of America, to be sacrificed in a “forever war”.
More than 50,000 Afghan civilians died, in bombings, crossfire and drone strikes, while children were slaughtered and maimed.
Many of our soldiers died, while others returned to a home which didn’t support them and they were broken mentally and physically.
What murderous, destructive envoys of God, Bush, Blair and the Jihadis were, with barely a fag paper separating them morally.
The war was sold on hyperbolic slogans, the “war on terror”, “war against evil”, the good of the west raging against the “axis of evil”.
“Terror” and “terrorist” have punctuated political rhetoric ever since, effectively used to terrorise and manipulate us into submission.
Bin Laden was the same warlord whose mujahadeen the CIA had armed to the hilt to fight the Russians in the region, when the Reds superceded Muslim bogeymen as the enemy.
“Holy warriors”, Reagan had called Bin Laden and his men, as millions of dollars were spent to feed, clothe, arm and bolster them before that investment came back to haunt us.
The invasion was never about the “hunt for Bin Laden” when his capture was always going to rely on intelligence, not mass bombing campaigns.
Blair and Bush argued there was also a moral imperative to support the Afghans when like gun-toting jihadis they were heady with jingoism, machismo and evangelical zeal.
And it was no feminist crusade to emancipate Afghan women or they would have started with their business partner, Saudia Arabia, which taught the Taliban everything they needed to know about crushing women.
When the Taliban capitulated in Afghanistan, some women, mainly the middle classes, were given freedoms, but the war lords, propped up by the Allies, were just as oppressive to ordinary, poorer women.
The images of hip chicks in jeans drinking coffee in the chic cafes of Kabul were far from representative.
Imagine if instead of war, America and Britain had used their power and money to support a peaceful transition from the Taliban to some form of democracy in Afghanistan.
If Allied soldiers hadn’t tortured prisoners in CIA blacksites and in Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, and their drone strikes slaughtered innocent civilians, perhaps the region wouldn’t have been such fertile territory for the Taliban and any other disaffected, gun-slinging thug.
Some of the trillions spent on missiles and tanks could have instigated a cultural shift among men who have been shaped into “warriors” by centuries of conflict and patriarchy.
With investment, far more women could have been educated and placed in positions of power, instead of subjugated by a series of different masters.
The betrayal of the Afghan people came long before the Allied withdrawal.
Money invested wisely would have been a far more effective conduit of change than bombs and it would have saved so much heartache.
If there is a God surely that’s what he would have told Bush, not that he would have listened.
Poor timing by burk in a burka
What a burk Lily Cole was wearing a blue burka on Instagram to promote her new book, just as Kabul was falling to the Taliban.
Gushing about “celebrating diversity” she was referring to her book Who Cares Wins: Reasons For Optimism in Our Changing World, which will fall flat with women in Afghanistan right now.
And as her face was exposed she’s defo not going to win any Taliban Who Wore it Best? competition.
In fairness, Cole made a stupid mistake but she does need to spend more time watching the news rather than Instagram.
Money moans... Huw must be joking
Does newsreader Huw Edwards ever absorb any of the bulletins he reads out?
Clearly not the ones about medical staff risking their lives in the pandemic or the latest round of crippling austerity cuts from the Tories.
Otherwise he might have thought twice about moaning that the BBC had published details of his exorbitant salary.
He said he was infuriated by his salary being revealed under Government rules for BBC stars earning over £150,000.
Huw said it was handled “clumsily,” adding: “I’m thankful I have a job that pays well. But my own children didn’t know how much I was paid.”
One assumes, unless they are paying a licence fee, it’s none of their business.
The rest of us mugs out here who are paying for our public broadcasting service want to know we were chipping in for a salary which topped £600,000.
Huw was so huffy his salary was cut to a mere £430,000, he said reading the news isn’t as fun as it used to be.
Poor diddums, if he’s so angry about his privacy being invaded, he should drop his salary to a starvation level of under £150,000 and the BBC won’t have to publish it.
