Dispatches

Comments

1. I was amazed by the accuracy o the documentry, how tribal rivilaries toy with the americans for minor benfits. With all due respect emmma, sadly u completely missed the point of the documentry. It didnt say that the soldiers didnt have a hard time or that their efforts were useless. Instead, it was trying to break through to viewers the scale of the tragedy. Now the hard facts are, that ignorant people would never understand the difference of losing a single member of the family (to a "heroic" cause), as oppposed to a two foot tall toddler witnessing and later helping (physically) to burry not just his father but his brother and mother as well. I do think that this documentry was well deserved for viewers who are bombarded with the western propaganda which tend to successfully paint the picture of "no civilians were harmed". It went on to show the true feelings of the middle east where the Pathans would never co-operate with "force". Torture, raids and mass killings are not the way forward and all the innocent bloodshed could never be justified by the west whilst on their way of trying to look for gold in a coal mine. These Air strikes have continued in Sawat( North Western Pakistan) once again relying on inaccurate information which cost thousands of innocent lives. It is funny how the western media is never looked upon as being "bias" when claiming that there were no civilian deaths but as soon as the other side of the picture is portrayed, theres not a second of hesitancy of pouncing on it and tagging it with "having ulterior motives". To try and bring it home to an average man; its like saying that the american air and ground strike on Oxford at 2am while looking for a group of priests caused NO or LITTLE civilian deaths. Would that really be possible? Every town and village and city that pops up in the news that has been striked, is a town or city existing the same as one in any other part of the world. Inhabiting hundreds of innocent lives, multiple generations, children, mechanics and barbers. The difference is its not Harry or Peter they're killing, its Rafiq or Mohammed. The city isnt Brighton or Chicago, its Azizabad. In hindsight these tragedies will be acknowledged as ones in power with Hiroshima or the New Negro Movement, one in which both innocent lives were claimed and human rights were previously disregarded. If not today, one can only hope that eventually the massive impact of these actions can be understood.

   Posted by Neeshe` Khan on 19/06/2009 14:09:57

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2. I thought this "PIECE!" was rather one sided too. IT WAS not based on facts as u say snoop and frankly I dont care if its americans, canadians, british - anyone .. Whoever is out there to try and save our freedom at the end of the day is a hero... and i think with this programme, documentary, whatever they want to call it!!! is basically throwin it back in our troops faces! They are doing the job they trained so hard for, they are doing this for US!!! I think a lot of people forget that. To the person who wrote this story - well done for making our well deserved heros feel worse than they already do. I wish you would go over there for the time they have to and be away from their family and have to do what they have to...! You have no idea at then end of the day mate, I am proud of my man for being so brave and going out there doing what he does every single day. Did you ever think about the families of these soldiers who u were hurting? No... its just a story for u when all comes to all. Go through this mate and maybe I will have respect for u one day, but as it stands, you know nothing about this and need to stand back... You go on about how many civilians were killed - What about when we were taken so hard - the sneakyness of it - we had no reason to be aware of it - we dont go there and blow ourselves up just to know that we are taking others with us, we are trying to help - something you obviously cannot grasp. I know where I stand in this whole mess - with my counntry- with me man - my family.. we are trying to help these ppl, u made it sound like we invaded them, get a life and stop making stories off other peoples backs - you arent out there u dont feel what they do - stop judging and start thinking. You make our soldiers look and feel like a joke, like a disappointment - a failure... when they are the most couragous of us all... and they will not be beaten by a silly little journalist who just needed a story. Tut, shame on u. Where do u stand ey?

   Posted by Emma D on 19/06/2009 06:13:26

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3. Exellent program. If British officers graduate from Sandhurst and Dartmouth,with a large percentage of recruits coming from the private school sector, where the people of lower grades [lower intellect?] were guided toward Officer training, are our "generals" Donkeys?

   Posted by James Beattie on 17/06/2009 11:20:05

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4. I was actually pretty annoyed with C4 when I watched this, and I felt the entire documentary was very one sided. There seemed to be no evidence presented to the viewer and it was very criticising Britain's Ally for many years. There was no-one speaking from the other points of view, even no-one from the Red Cross etc which all allegedly had large amounts of evidence. Three sides to every story, one the other and the truth and I don't think there was enough discussion just one sidedness. How do you fight an enemy who runs away into a compound with women and children in it, in my opinion a bit of a cowardly act. In truth I'm suprised there have not been far more civilians killed when Taliban fighters use these tactics, and for sure our army couldn't cope without the airstrikes from the Americans and I think without them you'd have double the amount of Ally soldiers dying !

   Posted by Snoop Bagg on 16/06/2009 09:22:39

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5. The yanks are great allies but yet again they shoot first and ask questions later. We will never win over the hearts and minds of the Afghan people until such time as we are seen to be in their county to help them and not bomb them to bits.

   Posted by broon067 on 15/06/2009 21:14:22

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6. Excellent Documentary- Thank you Channel 4 for a well researched and informative programme. It showed how poor intelligence leads to huge death tolls and how the US forces once more do not want to take responsibility for their actions. They The Americans know nothing of Afghan culture and see all bearded men as the enemey.

   Posted by Raza on 15/06/2009 20:57:33

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7. Just-in-Time. C yesterday's NY Times of UN report on similar lines. Look forward 2 watching it.

   Posted by Ancient Greek on 14/06/2009 12:26:24

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