By 2020 Britain would have spent nearly 40 billion pounds on its Afghan Campaign.
31.05.2013
The main beneficiaries of the Afghan war were arms dealers and afghan drug lords. A new book authored by Frank Ledwidge claims that in the whole operation not even a single Al-Qaida operative has been captured or killed. Yes, these facts are true. Frank Ledwidge, author of a damning study called “Investment in Blood” has outlined these facts. According to the study the cost of war will go up to 40 billion pounds by 2020. The cost of the war till date has cost each UK household an amount of 2,000 pounds or 15 million pounds per day. By 2020 the author says, Britain would have spent at least 40 billion pounds on its Afghan campaign, which is equivalent to the cost of recruiting 5,000 police officers or nurses and pay them for their entire service duration. The sum would also be enough to equip the navy with an up to date aircraft carrier group or recruit and equip three army or royal marine brigades and fund them for a decade.
Apart from the huge expenditure the human cost of the war is excruciating. More than 440 British soldiers have been killed so far, the study says. Nearly 5,000 soldiers are wounded in this war, he (Frank Ledwidge) says. This is after the UK joined a U.S. led occupation of the country in 2001. The book also says that British troops in Helmand have killed more than 500 non-combatants. More than half of them are hospitalized and Britain has paid compensation to these families. Non-combatant is a legal term used in war describing the civilians who are not taking part in war hostilities. They include medical personnel and support staff who are members of the armed forces but are protected due to their specific duties. Ledwidge, who has also been a civilian adviser to the government in Iraq, Libya and Afghanistan, says Helmand is more stable now, mainly due to increase in opium production which is filling the coffers of afghan land lords. He opines the real beneficiaries of the war were development consultants, Afghan drug suppliers and international arms companies. Much of British aid to Afghanistan was spent on consultation fees rather than Afghans who need it most. However, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has tried to undermine the estimates by claiming only 25 billion pounds were spent as part of its military operation in Afghanistan. Defence sources also told that they do not keep figures on civilian casualties and has told the commons defence committee that it cannot provide a figure for the “total” cost of operations in Afghanistan. Ledwidge, opined in the book that it was a serious mistake to treat Al-Qaida as a military problem, it was an intelligence problem he says. The real reason why Britain has spent so much money and blood on Afghanistan is simple “The perceived necessity of the closest possible links with the U.S.” He also mentioned in his book “Before you engage in a war, understand the environment you are going into, precisely and realistically what would be your objective and cost of the war. In other words have ‘strategy’ in place.