Watch the wall, my darling, while the Taliban go by
Wednesday 27th April 2011, 6:00AM BST.
I started doing the maths but got dispirited half-way through, writes Peter Rhodes.
Suffice it to say that a tunnel more than 1,000 feet long in which a man can stand is not the usual prison-bust tunnel.
The one through which 400 Afghan criminals and terrorists escaped in Kandahar this week was a major civil-engineering project in the heart of the city. It would have involved shifting hundreds of cubic yards of material and required massive amounts of timber to shore up the roof.
Lorries and workers would have been arriving 24/7 at the house – rented by the Taliban – from which it was dug.
Half of Kandahar must have known about it.
After 10 years of trying to win Afghan hearts and minds, the people are still not on our side and probably never will be. Given the choice between informing or looking the other way, they will always choose the latter.
I am reminded of Kipling’s advice on how to behave when smugglers are about: “Watch the wall, my darling, while the gentlemen go by.”
Afghanistan must have some of the best-watched walls in the world.
Business Awards
Book a Business Awards table
Join our celebrations of the region's best in business on Thursday March 22 - book your table now
Lifestyle
Interactive Dining Out map
Hundreds of reviews by the Express & Star and Shropshire Star's teams to help you decide where to eat.
entertainment
All the film reviews
Before you plan a trip to the pictures, get our critics' verdicts on all the latest movie releases
OUR NEW APP
Get the new E&S app
Download the Express & Star’s new app to your iPad or iPhone to get one week of access to our digital newspapers absolutely FREE.
expressandstar.com
Popular sections
Useful links
What do the Afghan people deem as our side: our views, or those of our supposedly elected leaders? I say this because the two aren’t the same; the likes of Obama, Bush and Cameron are despised by many people in the West. They’re despised because we don’t see them as representing our interests but rather, those of private offshore banking interests. The banks run the world these days..and war is an industry to them. We just take the blame for their wrong-doing because they do it in our name, claiming it’s for our benefit. It isn’t. Our own countrie’s morals, it’s history, culture and fairness is raped and pillaged by these interests – it’s clear we need our own political voice in order to take our country back and determine our own fate. As far as I am concerned Obama and Cameron do not speak for me and they never will.
Report abuse