A former British soldier in Afghanistan, who was jailed for refusing to fight, has revealed the horror behind the mask of \u00c5\u201cBritain as a force for good, liberty and democracy\u201d.\n<\/p>\n
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.\n<\/p>\n
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.\n<\/p>\n
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 \u00c5\u201chackneyed stuff\u201d.\n<\/p>\n
\u00c5\u201cWe 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 it\u00e2\u201e\u00a2s sold at home. I came back and because of those things, I thought, \u00cb\u0153No, this isn\u00e2\u201e\u00a2t right\u00e2\u201e\u00a2,\u201d he said.\n<\/p>\n
\u00c5\u201cIs 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? It\u00e2\u201e\u00a2s a new veneer on a very old practice,\u201d he added.\n<\/p>\n
Glenton had earlier said in an article for the socialist Counterfire website in March 2012 that the campaign in Afghanistan was a \u00c5\u201cmassacre\u201d carried out as a \u00c5\u201cbusiness as usual\u201d under the same \u00c5\u201creheated lies\u201d.\n<\/p>\n
\u00c5\u201cRecent 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,\u201d he said at the time.\n<\/p>\n
Glenton\u00e2\u201e\u00a2s Soldier Box hit the shelves at bookstores on Wednesday.\n<\/p>\n
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.\n<\/p>\n
AMR\/HE<\/p>\n