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Wednesday, 7 October 2009

Military chiefs and British democracy

Over at Counter Fire there's an excellent response by Ady Cousins to the armed forces' lobbying for more troops in Afghanistan. He observes that not only are the arguments wrong, but it is unacceptable for unelected generals to think they can dictate policy to elected politicians.

Their Establishment arrogance is all the more galling when you remember that recent opinion polls in several countries consistently indicate anti-war majorities. This includes the new poll of British public opinion, which shows that arguments from Tories, right-wing press and military top brass are failing to resonate.

I notice Radio 4 has a debate, 'Afghanistan - is it mission impossible?', tonight at 8pm (repeated on Saturday at 10.15pm), which features Lindsey German (convenor of Stop the War) amongst others. This presumably reflects a recognition that Afghanistan is a source of growing concern and anger in this country. Another expression of this is the public meetings organised by Stop the War in the run up to the 24 October demonstration. Our meeting in Newcastle last night had some new faces, and was both informative and a platform for mobilising a big turnout on 24 October.

UPDATE: For an interesting twist to the tale see HERE.

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