Prince Harry exposed!!! Grrrrr!!

[DGP1]

i liked this tongue in cheek column on this subject, http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/

http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/busi ... 080125680/ I liked this one

[dvbuk55]

It was the Queens shilling, who is is Grandma not his Ma who never was and now never will be Queen, that honour will go to Camilla.

[jafferpants]

The russians spent 10 years in that country and got nowhere. What idiot thought we would make any difference. Still i expect harry's father (james hewitt) is proud of him.

[Lounge Lizard]

The russians spent 10 years in that country and got nowhere. What idiot thought we would make any difference. Still i expect harry's father (james hewitt) is proud of him.

But did MI5 and Prince Phillip really want to get him back from Afghanistam alive ?
Hewitt's son third in line to the throne could be nearly as embarrasing as Diana marrying a moslem, and a fatality 'on active service' could be more easily staged than a fatal road accident in Paris.
Yes, you can't beat a good conspiracy theory !

[TrueBlueTerrier]

The russians spent 10 years in that country and got nowhere. What idiot thought we would make any difference. Still i expect harry's father (james hewitt) is proud of him.

But did MI5 and Prince Phillip really want to get him back from Afghanistam alive ?
Hewitt's son third in line to the throne could be nearly as embarrasing as Diana marrying a moslem, and a fatality 'on active service' could be more easily staged than a fatal road accident in Paris.
Yes, you can't beat a good conspiracy theory !

Perhaps then Harry rung Australia in January - anyone checked his phone bill

[Barry Trotter]

My nephew is currently serving 'abroad' with the !st batt scots guards and TBH I dont recall anyone phoning my mum to ask if it was ok for him to go into 'steepasfuckistan' so howcome Jimmy Hewitts laddie gets this courtesy? Sorry but your either one of the lads or your not.

[brothermagrew]

Well done dvbuk for spotting my deliberate typo - yes indeed Grandma and not Mother.

[Thorby Bislam]

No sorry can't see it.
Call me a weirdo but calling in an airstrike of a $150,000,000 jet to drop 500lbs of precision guided high explosives on four peasants with 40 year old kalashnikovs ,simply because they object to strange armed foriegners ruling their neighbourhood, does not really inspire me

1. The Taleban have an abundance of the latest high tech weaponry themselves, courtesy of the Iranian government.

2. Afghanistan is ruled by the Afghans themselves under president H. Karzai. Britain and the USA are fighting the Taleban whilst training the Afghan army to be able to take care of themselves.

[BELIAL]

No sorry can't see it.
Call me a weirdo but calling in an airstrike of a $150,000,000 jet to drop 500lbs of precision guided high explosives on four peasants with 40 year old kalashnikovs ,simply because they object to strange armed foriegners ruling their neighbourhood, does not really inspire me

1. The Taleban have an abundance of the latest high tech weaponry themselves, courtesy of the Iranian government.

2. Afghanistan is ruled by the Afghans themselves under president H. Karzai. Britain and the USA are fighting the Taleban whilst training the Afghan army to be able to take care of themselves.

Karzi, you honestly believe that?

In some ways correct ,Taleban armed, funded ,and trained for twenty years by the good old USA, Guess who set up the original fanatical Muslim Madrasas.
These super dooper high tech Iranian weapons are they like those fabled Iraqi ones, if not how come that war ended in bloody stalemate with 100,000 bodies bobbing in the Shat el Arab ,Somme style

[DGP1]

Never screw with the Afghans http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Maiwand

[TrueBlueTerrier]

No sorry can't see it.
Call me a weirdo but calling in an airstrike of a $150,000,000 jet to drop 500lbs of precision guided high explosives on four peasants with 40 year old kalashnikovs ,simply because they object to strange armed foriegners ruling their neighbourhood, does not really inspire me

1. The Taleban have an abundance of the latest high tech weaponry themselves, courtesy of the Iranian government.

2. Afghanistan is ruled by the Afghans themselves under president H. Karzai. Britain and the USA are fighting the Taleban whilst training the Afghan army to be able to take care of themselves.

Karzi, you honestly believe that?

In some ways correct ,Taleban armed, funded ,and trained for twenty years by the good old USA, Guess who set up the original fanatical Muslim Madrasas.
These super dooper high tech Iranian weapons are they like those fabled Iraqi ones, if not how come that war ended in bloody stalemate with 100,000 bodies bobbing in the Shat el Arab ,Somme style

Actually the Taliban are known to be using Armour piercing upwards firing mines (their effect is similar to sabot rounds used by tanks), they are also using Command Wire controlled IEDs - these are thought to come direct from either the Islamic Revolution's Guards Corps (IRGC) (Sepáh e Pásdárán e Enqeláb e Eslámi;) or by Ex Bathists from IRAQ. The also still use Stingers (which the USA) gave them and they are still taking out American Helicopters occasionally with them. They also use mortars and the spotters that are needed to use them effectively.

So they are neither backward mountain tribesmen armed with just Kalishnikovs, but neither are they armed with high tech weaponry similar to the European Armies standard. They are somewhere in between

As to the Political structure - Hamid Karzai despite being the president of Afghanistan only really controls the capital and has very little influence beyond that. The warlords that control the rest of the country will appear to support him, but as soon the Afghan army moves into the Poppy fields to destroy them, or tries to make it present felt in a tribal area, without the coalition, they are usually ambushed either by the Warlords own tribal forces, or by the Taliban.

The Taliban are seen in the UK as a terrorist army, but TBH this is too simplistic. The Taliban can really been seen as 3 separate and distinct types.

1. Devout Fundamentalists who wish to expel "infidels" from Afghanistan. These are generally well trained and are individually very good at what they do. This is also the group where the suicide bombers tend to come from.

2. Poppy farmers protecting their crops, or when between harvest and seeding they become Taliban sympathisers. Also in this group are the ones that have been forced into fighting for the Taliban. These are generally the cannon fodder that get sent ahead of the main and better armed Taliban when they take on coalition forces.

3. The third Group are mercenaries, or Tribal fighters that are use both by the Taliban and Warlords to fight proxy battles against the coalition. The mujhadeen which are a separate entity from the Taliban use similar tactics but the international press do not normally make the distinction when reporting incidents. The mujhadeen though are not quite as strong in Afghanistan as they were, most of their fighters are currently fighting against the Russians in Cechenya and the Caucasus.

[BELIAL]

You learn something every day
Still don't see them managing to occupy West Norwood though

[TrueBlueTerrier]

You learn something every day
Still don't see them managing to occupy West Norwood though

[Thorby Bislam]

Spot on TBT. That is how I understand it to be too.
I would only add that President Karzai is the legitimate ruler of Afghanistan. See this from GlobalSecurity.org ...

His actual authority outside the capital city of Kabul has been said to be so limited that he had often been derided as the "Mayor of Kabul." Although he had little or no popular support outside Kabul, the Karzai defeated his 22 opponents in the country's presidential election on October 9th, 2004. Endorsement by the second Bush administration, incumbency, the brief one month campaign season, and the paucity of news coverage in the country about his opponents made him the winner in an election initially expected to be flawed by violence and vote fraud.

On November 3, 2004, Hamid Karzai was declared the winner of Afghanistan's first-ever presidential election, after the United Nations-Afghan joint electoral commission endorsed the election results as free and fair and announced that Karzai had won more than 55% of the votes.

On December 7, 2004, Afghanistan's Hamid Karzai took the oath of office and thus becoming Afghanistan's first popularly-elected president.

55% is hardly a ringing endorsement but it is the majority rule.

[jafferpants]

You learn something every day
Still don't see them managing to occupy West Norwood though

belial thats a cracker.