A former British soldier in Afghanistan, who was jailed for refusing to fight, has revealed the horror behind the mask of Å“Britain as a force for good, liberty and democracy”.
Joe Glenton has said in his newly-published book, Soldier Box, that the situation on the ground in Afghanistan was quite opposite to what the British government and media pretended it to be.
Glenton was deployed to the Asian country in 2006, served there for seven months, became a conscientious objector and absent without leave and was sent to jail in 2010 for talking to the media about the Afghan war.
He says in Soldier Box that civilians were bombed in Afghanistan in cold blood, contrary to claims by Britain and its allies that they were there to spread democracy, support human rights, build infrastructure and those types of Å“hackneyed stuff”.
Å“We knew civilians were being bombed and how the war was being conducted. It was conducted in a climate of racism and indifference to the Afghan people, completely at odds with how itâ„¢s sold at home. I came back and because of those things, I thought, ËœNo, this isnâ„¢t rightâ„¢,” he said.
Å“Is it human rights or is it because Afghanistan is in a strategic location with borders with China, Pakistan and Iran? Are we spreading democracy or is this power politics? Itâ„¢s a new veneer on a very old practice,” he added.
Glenton had earlier said in an article for the socialist Counterfire website in March 2012 that the campaign in Afghanistan was a Å“massacre” carried out as a Å“business as usual” under the same Å“reheated lies”.
Å“Recent history exposes the real face of the imperial project – kill-teams, Bagram prison, UK troops raping children, [Nazi] SS flags flying, Koran burning, house raids, kidnapping, torture, murder and mayhem. It is not a case of one loose cannon ruining the good work that has been done. This is a case of imperialism doing what imperialism does,” he said at the time.
Glentonâ„¢s Soldier Box hit the shelves at bookstores on Wednesday.
Britain and its western allies invaded Afghanistan in 2001 to allegedly take democracy and stability to the country but facts on the ground show exactly the opposite with foreign forces whitewashing their continued massacre of civilians with terms such as “colateral damage” in the fight agaist terrorists.
AMR/HE
This article originally appeared on : Press TV




