Afghanistan War Crimes: 20+ Years of Lies, Cover-Up and Misery

Newsletter – 15/07/22

Afghanistan War Crimes: 20+ Years of Lies, Cover-Up and Misery

The evidence brought to light by BBC Panorama of alleged widespread unlawful killings by special forces in the British Army is further damning proof that the military occupation of Afghanistan was an utter failure. The primary victims of that failure were the people of Afghanistan who have suffered immeasurably from these war crimes.

The programme details over one-hundred murders including night raids on unarmed victims, the killing of detainees and the ensuing cover-up. Stop the War demands that those responsible for these crimes and the whitewash that followed are brought to justice for their actions.

The fact that General Sir Mark Carleton-Smith, the former head of UK Special Forces, who is accused of leading the cover-up was promoted to Chief of the General Staff is yet another disturbing indictment of the British Army. The ‘reward for failure’ culture in that institution seemingly knows no bounds.

Stop the War Convenor, Lindsey German, said:

“These revelations are horrific and were obviously well known at the highest levels of the British Army. We have had 20 years of lies about Afghanistan, not least that it was a humanitarian intervention.

These killings were war crimes and were covered up. There should be trials of those responsible including those in government and military who knew about this. But I won’t be holding my breath given the impunity over Blair and Iraq.”

Watch: NATO – A War Alliance Online Launch

As the war in Ukraine develops into a proxy war between NATO and Russia, we must step up our campaigning against the NATO war alliance. As part of this campaign we’ve produced a new briefing analysing the past and future of this aggressive alliance.

On Tuesday, we hosted an online launch of the pamphlet with two of its contributors, Stop the War Officers Andrew Murray and Jenny Clegg. Watch it back below.

We’re encouraging all of our local groups to hold similar launch events for the pamphlet in their local area. If you’d like to put on an event in your area don’t hesitate to get in touch.

Tolpuddle Martyrs Festival

Everyone at Stop the War is excited to be part of the Tolpuddle Martyrs Festival again this year as it returns for the first time since 2019. It’s a vital event steeped in history and we can’t wait to join everyone.

We’re going to be hosting a stall in the marquee throughout the weekend and joining Sunday’s march – and we need your help! If you can lend us an hour or two of your time during either day, particularly at lunchtimes, we’d love to hear from you.

Please do let us know by clicking the button below and leaving your name and number.

This Week’s Anti-War Briefing