Should an
independent Scotland
be part of NATO?
The township of 12 people
which sells four million
cans of beer a year
Scotland
in the
heat
www.bobsmithart.co.uk
The Cafe
Do you feel powerless? Are you one of the many who no longer trust government, local government, etc? Have you been let down by a government-funded body? Do you have bags full of correspondence all to no avail? Please be assured you are not alone.
Accountability Scotland was formed by some of the many people who have been badly let down. We all have a different story; some span years of abuse by government organisations who forget that they are public servants paid by the public with only one purpose – the benefit of the public.
Democracy is lost when apathy takes over. If you feel you have fought and fought and are alone and have nowhere else to go, knowing that the route to court is only open to the very poor or the very, very rich, then please come to us.
If you have made reasonable, logical complaints against any public service and been stonewalled at every turn, you need to contact like-minded people who understand your despair. Accountability Scotland will support you with advice wherever possible and you may wish to help our national campaign.
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Mary Baxter
The damage to
an already fragile
relationship
Alan Fisher
Five years ago, deep in the south-west of Germany, I was taken to see American troops prepare for Afghanistan. Based in a massive training area which stretched for miles, a long way away from the nearest towns, makeshift villages were built and native Afghan speakers imported to give the soldiers an idea of what might lie ahead when they were finally told to ship out.
An important part of the set-up is sensitivity training; learning to talk with village elders, to address them properly and learn the ways and customs of a people who, by and large, simply want to get on with their lives.
The young soldiers I was with thought it was a good idea and applied themselves diligently to watch and learn, wisely recognising that if the locals liked them and even respected them then there was less chance of coming under attack and less chance of them or their buddies leaving Afghanistan dead.
Despite this important training, the US has committed a series of serious mis-steps which have undermined their efforts to win over the Afghan people.
Last year, the leader of a 12-soldier ‘kill team’ was given a life sentence by a US military court. Prosecutors said staff sergeant Calvin Gibbs hunted innocent Afghans ‘for sport’, and cut off body parts for trophies. He then posed for pictures with the corpses.
Then there were the four marines who video-taped themselves urinating on the bodies of dead Afghans and the US sniper unit which happily posed in front of a Nazi SS banner. There was the US combat outpost nicknamed Aryan. And earlier this year, the British Ministry of Defence confirmed it was investigating reports that two 10-year-old children, a boy and a girl, were abused by UK troops.
Walking around the shopping malls and the international restaurants in Kabul, it is perhaps easy to forget that this is, outside the capital, a deeply conservative country.
Continued military night raids appal the cultural sensitivities of most Afghans and damage the image of NATO soldiers. But even these incidents have not provoked the widespread and deep anger of the discovery of the burning of Qurans at the US-dominated Bagram airbase in Afghanistan.
People across the country have taken to the streets to protest. More than 40 have been killed including a number of Americans. The US State Department insist the protests have been hijacked by extremists who see this as a convenient issue to rally support. That may be true in part, but it would be wrong to underestimate the anger felt across Afghanistan.
The Americans seemed overwhelmed by the reaction, unable to get on top of events, or put together a response which would quell the violence. Walking around the shopping malls and the international restaurants in Kabul, it is perhaps easy to forget that this is, outside the capital, a deeply conservative country. For many, the burning of the holy book demonstrates that America still doesn’t understand the deeply held beliefs and traditions in Afghanistan.
It doesn’t matter, say my Muslim friends in the country, that the proper way to dispose of a damaged Quran is to burn it. This was disrespectful. America has apologised for the incident and the US commander, General John Allen, has ordered all military personnel in the country to undergo 10 days of sensitivity training on the handling of religious materials. The greater concern is the damage the incident has done to an already fragile relationship.
America wants to scale back the number of soldiers in the country by the end of the summer and pull all combat troops out by the end of 2014. The intention is to leave thousands of advisors who will work closely with the Afghan security forces to stop a resurgence by the Taliban. For that to work, there needs to be trust and co-operation. That seems to be in increasingly short supply.
Alan Fisher is an Al Jazeera correspondent
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