A Narrative of Failure – 3 Para in Afghanistan

Recently, a friend lent me a book that he’d just bought – “3 Para”, by Patrick Bishop. The book covers the six-month deployment of the Third Battalion of the Parachute Regiment to Helmand Province in Afghanistan, beginning in April, 2006. I was a little reluctant to read this book, as I knew the ending of our military adventures as part of the so-called “War on Terror”: failure. The failure in Helmand Province was much less ignominious than that in Iraq, but a failure it was. Nonetheless, I resolved to give the book a chance.
The Paras set off for Afghanistan following a month’s training in Oman, expecting to see little combat, if any, while aiding in reconstruction projects. They soon changed their minds about that; things went wrong from the outset. As Bishop says:
“The size of the “force package”…had been the subject of long debate in London. Men and material were in short supply owing to commitments in Iraq.”
Besides this, there was no worse place in Afghanistan for British troops to be stationed. As Frank Ledwidge says in his book “Losing Small Wars”, the local Helmand populace had long memories of previous British incursions into their land:
“…the British were simply sticking to their role as the regular invaders of their country.”
James Fergusson, in his book “A Million Bullets” says:
“To the Afghan mind the return of the Brits looked like an Allah driven invitation to a punch up”.
If the Paras went to “Afghan” expecting a punch up, they got one. By June, conflict with the Taliban had begun. All “hearts and minds” activity ended, and the Paras, together with some Fusiliers, Irish Rangers and Gurkhas were engaged in desperate defensive actions against continuous Taliban attacks. Most of Bishop’s book is devoted to descriptions of these attacks, and little purpose is served by detailing them here. Even Bishop admits that the Taliban showed remarkable tenacity in continuing to attack, despite severe losses. Inevitably, the Paras suffered casualties as well. Fourteen were killed, two of whom, Corporals Brian Budd and Mark Wright, were awarded the Victoria Cross and George Cross respectively. Forty-six soldiers were wounded, many suffering life-changing injuries. The Taliban succeeded, by their constant, if costly, attacks in thwarting the principal stated aim of the Paras’ mission. Bishop again:
“The reconstruction mission had become a memory. 3 Para and their comrades were fighting a desperate war of attrition. Most of them were besieged in…”platoon houses”…fighting off daily attacks by the Taliban, who, despite taking murderous losses, kept on coming”.
Unsurprisingly, these constant battles were highly destructive of the towns and villages in which our troops were stationed. They also served the purpose of further alienating the local civilian population by destroying homes and livelihoods, and by being seen to support a corrupt local government, the worst aspect being an unbelievably corrupt police force. Ledwidge again:
“Most police posts had their “fun boy” – child catamite – and the British estimated that over 80% of policemen were regular smokers of hash…”
Small wonder then that, towards the end of the Paras’ tour, as Bishop comments:
“…the attitude of the local people seemed to have turned to one of indifference or hostility”.
The Paras themselves seem to have sensed the futility of their activity. Bishop quotes a Para officer as saying:
“What was it all about?...Well, I flattened the town and I killed a lot of Taliban…did that achieve a good effect? I don’t know”.
After six months and 498 engagements, the Paras and their comrades were withdrawn. Writing in 2007, Bishop ends the book by observing that the Paras were getting ready for another deployment to “Afghan”, as they did in 2008. Bishop went with them, writing yet another book about the conflict: “Ground Truth”. I shan’t be reading it. I might not know the details, but I know the ending for the British military. I know that the Taliban changed their tactics, resorting to less costly (for them) planting of multiple IEDs. I know that many of the places in Helmand that the Paras fought so hard to hold have since fallen to the Taliban. President Trump’s decision to continue to deploy US troops might stave off defeat for the Afghan government. How long for, no-one knows. I finished this book full of admiration for the Paras and the other soldiers and equally filled with anger at the people who sent them on an ultimately futile mission. Our memories of our Afghan adventure, and the names of those who fell in action, are slipping into history as something we would rather forget. I shall return the book to my friend when I see him, with thanks. He bought it – a hardback- in a charity shop for £0-99. Somehow, that seems to speak volumes - a sad commentary on our contribution to the "War on Terror".

3 Para soldiers in Helmand Province.

The Parsons Green Outrage: Searching for Explanations

We all agree: it could have been worse. If the Parsons Green Tube bomb had been better constructed, we would have seen a tube carriage full of corpses, rather than the scores of people injured by flame. It is a relief to me that two men have been arrested, one in Dover and another here in Hounslow. If these two alleged perpetrators are brought to trial, it will be a relief we all share. Our present sympathies, of course, go out to the victims and to Ronald and Penelope Jones, M.B.E., who are believed to have fostered an 18-year old, allegedly one of the two men arrested.
This is the fourth terrorist incident in the capital this year, but differs in some ways from the others. No-one was killed, more by luck than judgement. A timer device was used for the first time with the IED on the tube train. Also, the attack was unusual in that the attacker left the scene before the bomb exploded; usually, they explode the bomb themselves in a suicide attack, as with the Manchester Arena and 7/7 bombings. This might indicate a change in tactics by ISIS/Daesh; they might have realised that suicide bombings are somewhat wasteful of manpower - especially when you're losing a war elsewhere.
What we are not doing, I believe, is questioning whether or not our analyses of the motivation for these attacks are correct. I don't claim to have the answer, but I believe that some of the current views, held by different shades of political opinion, bear closer examination and evaluation.
We hear a good deal about the government de-radicalisation programme, but little about its effectiveness. According to The Guardian in 2016:
"Almost 4,000 people were referred to the UK government’s flagship counter-terrorism scheme last year (2015) – nearly triple the figure in the previous year, and an average of 11 people a day".
This is done with good intent, but did not prevent terrorist attacks this year. In the same 2016 article, The Guardian noted:
"In October last year, a 14-year-old boy from Blackburn who had been on the deradicalisation programme was jailed for life for plotting the Anzac day beheading of Australian police officers. Worried school staff had referred the boy, who cannot be named, to Channel in 2013 but caseworkers were forced to call in police when the boy paid only “lip service” to their efforts, the judge said in sentencing."
This is not to say that the programme is ineffectual, but it does point to a weakness in the thinking behind it. It is based on the conservative thesis that revolutions, strikes, unrest, terrorism are all stirred up by a small minority of troublemakers that people blindly follow: "All we like sheep are gone astray", as it says in The Old Testament. This simple-minded view takes a very patronising attitude of human beings who, apparently, cannot think or act for themselves. So then, rather like naughty children who just need a good talking-to, a de-radicalisation programme will sort out these deluded individuals. However, we are not dealing with naughty children. While de-radicalisation may prove successful in many cases, it may actually cause more dedicated Jihadis (or Fascists, Anarchists, etc...) to become even more determined in their radical views. No-one likes being talked down to, and it is perfectly possible to undergo ideological re-programming without changing your opinions. Just because you are in a room with a proponent of a differing view does not mean you have to listen to them, still less agree.
From the Left, we get a different perspective on these events. Stop the War Coalition have not yet seen fit to comment upon the Parsons Green bombing, but if they did, they would probably say something like this:
"Yes, well, Comrades, this bomb attack is deplorable but we really should remember that all these terrorist attacks have come about because of the illegal and imperialist invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan. Let's not forget, also, that millions of innocent Muslims have died in those countries even though the casualties at Parsons Green deserve our sympathy."
The problem with this view, which is every bit as simple-minded as the first, is that it is anachronistic and reductionist. The invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, wrong though they were, happened in a previous decade. Today's Jihadis are not acting out of anger about the invasions 15 years ago; they believe that Daesh provide the way for all Muslims to follow now. Nearly all the Jihadis arrested or killed in the UK were born here, not Iraq or Afghanistan. By ascribing the invasions as a prime moving force for terrorism, we ignore other factors - and the passage of time.
I believe that those who resort to terrorism in the name of Allah in the UK are possessed of a deep-seated feeling of alienation. Events abroad may well have considerable influence, but there are other possible factors. One might be mental illness; some (unlikely, I admit) may arrive at their Jihadi beliefs through argument and intellectual persuasion. However, I think we should look at the way Asians, and Pakistanis in particular, have been treated in this country since the advent of mass immigration after WW2. Have we forgotten "Paki-bashing"? Rajni Bathia wrote in 2007:
"It's a word I heard all too often in my formative years and one which still stirs up bad memories of bovver boots, skinheads and "Paki-bashing"."
Today's young Asians will have heard of this from their forbears: about racist violence, discrimination, Enoch Powell and being rejected by so much of white society. It should come as no surprise that for a small minority of young Muslim Asians, there is an inherited sense of resentment which has caused them to listen to the equally alienated anti-Western rhetoric of the Jihadis. We often hear about our imperial legacy; I believe that our problems today are partly the result of our post-imperial legacy.

Skinheads - post-imperial soldiers of the Empire.

Veterans on Trial and the Achievements of Tony Blair

On Sunday morning, a name I recognised came out of the past. I was watching the BBC programme, "Sunday Morning Live", where a group of people were discussing the necessity of trials for alleged acts of murder committed by British soldiers during the Ulster conflict. The discussion grew distinctly acrimonious, with supporters and opponents of the proposed trials becoming very angry. During the squabbling, the name of one alleged murder victim of the British Army was mentioned, and it took me back 45 years to what now seems a different world.

The name that came up was that of Joe McCann, shot dead by paratroopers on April 15, 1972. McCann was a "stickie" - Belfast parlance for an Official IRA member. He was commander of the Officials' Third Belfast Battalion, and thought to have been behind a number of terrorist attacks. However, he was unarmed at the time of his death and running away from the Paras, who are alleged to have shot him about 10 times. In November, 1972, I was in the company of some soldiers of the Royal Artillery who had just returned from a tour in Ulster. One of them gave a more graphic account of McCann's death, too gruesome to write here. The Officials declared a cease fire on May 29 that year, and the military campaign torch was taken up by the Provisional IRA.

Two former soldiers, both now greatly advanced in years, are to stand trial for McCann's death, and many others are being investigated for their role in similar circumstances. This has caused considerable resentment, with Army veterans calling it a witch hunt. They point out, perhaps rightly, that Tony Blair, under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement, betrayed his own soldiers, because, as "The Sun" says:

"...a total of 156 IRA suspects enjoy total immunity as part of the Good Friday Agreement struck by former Prime Minister Tony Blair. Dozens of other IRA fighters received “comfort letters” assuring them they would not face prosecution."

The Sun might have mentioned that this applied to scores of Loyalist terrorists as well, but they are correct in saying there was no such concession awarded to soldiers and RUC men. I have mixed feelings on this issue as, I freely admit, if Joe McCann were a relative of mine, I would want justice for him. On the other hand, unlike many of my generation, I own up to the fact that, at the time, I rejoiced to learn of the killing of IRA operatives. Only with the passing of the years did I become politically aware; only in the late 70s did I finally realise that there was no military solution to the Troubles in Northern Ireland. I also freely admit that I wholeheartedly supported the hunting down of Nazi war criminals such as Adolf Eichmann and Klaus Barbie. Despite this, I have grave reservations about the arraignment of Army veterans on such old charges.

Now, I am well aware that some people will accuse me of double standards here. "If you were happy to see old Nazis tried", it may be said, "why do you demur at the trials of elderly British soldiers? Aren't you being hypocritical?". At least, that's the cleaned-up version.

My answer is this: the British Army and the German Nazis were two different types of organisation, despite the propaganda of Irish Republicans, the Troops Out Movement and, to a lesser degree, the Stop the War Coalition. The British Army in Ulster had a painfully difficult task, which they didn't understand at first. We can argue about whether they should have been in Ulster at all, but that's not relevant here. The fact is that they were subject to due legal process and bound by rules of engagement. They did not always observe those rules, as on Bloody Sunday and in alleged extra-judicial killings for which these old men in their70s and 80s are facing trial. However, it needs to be said that many of these veterans have been investigated already, if not to everyone's satisfaction. Also, let's not forget: both sections of the IRA, Official and Provisional, had a "shoot to kill" policy, and no-one now is investigating them. Anyway, I anticipate that, should any of these British Army vets be acquitted, there will be a huge outcry of "white wash!" from the organisations mentioned above. I strongly suspect that their calls for justice are nothing more than a clamour for revenge. Conversely, should any be found guilty, there will be strident protests from veterans' organisations, politicians and many others - not all of them on the political right. It will be very difficult for all involved in the judicial process, knowing they will be condemned as biased, whatever verdict is passed.

I do understand the feelings of the relatives of those killed by the military in Ulster, in the same way that I understand those of the relatives of the dead, maimed and injured in the M62 coach bombing, the Birmingham pub bombings, the Hyde Park bomb attacks, the Enniskillen and Omagh atrocities and the Warrington bombing. The families of the victims of IRA atrocities have to live with the knowledge that the culprits will never be brought to justice. They have been told that this is all part of the peace process. No-one has asked them for their views on the matter.

Lastly, let's examine what Tony Blair has achieved here. The Good Friday Agreement was considered to be his crowning glory. We are now seeing old soldiers reviling him as a traitor for casting them to the wolves, while sparing terrorists. The Left, and the peace movement, loathe him for his military adventure in Iraq. He has alienated old soldiers and peace activists - very few British politicians have done that.