Quote Originally Posted by Elwood Blues View Post
The stop the war statement says "The British government should take a lead in offering a refugee programme and reparations to rebuild Afghanistan"..

Nothing wrong with the first part, yes we should take a lead in the refugee program. However the reparations part concerns me.

I do suspect that at some stage more prosperous countries will have to give financial help to Afghanistan. But are STW saying that we should immediately give cash to a regime that when it was previously in power was brutal and repressive? How would we know that they would use the money for the benefit of the Afghan people.

And if we call them reparations and give them to the Taliban what wrong are we righting there?
Isn't this a solution that has gone on for eternity.

The good guys finally stop trying to kill the bad guys , they shake hands and try to get along.
The good guys will make loadsa money helping to rebuild the damge they have done (helped by the bad guys )
The bad guys will make loadsa money doing whatever suits them (helped by the good guys.)

Human rights ? that will always be trumped by money I am afraid. Lets do some token hand wringing , we have tried everything else.

My only question is .

Are there really any good guys ?