The Progressive

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A project of Common Dreams

For Immediate Release
Contact: Email:,office@stopwar.org.uk

Stop the War's Statement Against Troop Deployment to Afghanistan

News today that Theresa May will meet the NATO secretary general in Downing Street on Wednesday where she will be asked to send more British troops to Afghanistan will surprise no one who is following events there.

It is estimated that the Taliban, supposedly defeated back in 2001, now control 40% of the country. After tens of thousands of deaths, huge numbers of refugees, many injured physically and mentally, and a whole society living through a seemingly endless war, the only solution politicians have is to send more troops into this catastrophe.

Theresa May has repeatedly made clear her commitment to a war agenda. She is determined to stick close to Donald Trump - the US is sending an estimated 3000 troops - and her defense secretary Michael Fallon said recently that they were prepared to join another attack on Syrian government forces, if necessary without parliamentary authorization.

The election is being fought with constant references to safety and security, with repeated admonitions to fight terrorism. Yet the truth which should be shouted from the rooftops is that this war has made terrorism more of a threat, has left people in Afghanistan and Britain less safe and less secure, and has absolutely no end in sight. The British 16-year involvement in the war and occupation in Afghanistan has been a colossal failure.

Stop the War was founded in September 2001 in the weeks following 9/11, when George W. Bush announced the "war on terror". Stop the War has since been dedicated to preventing and ending the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and elsewhere. Stop the War opposes the British establishment's disastrous addiction to war and its squandering of public resources on militarism. We have initiated many campaigns around these issues.

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