Dear Ms Shah
Introducing a segment on the current US-led ‘surge’ in Helmand province on The World Tonight last night you stated "Operation Moshtarak in southern Afghanistan has two aims. The first is to drive out the Taliban, the second is to bring good governance to the region." (http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qtl3).
Shouldn’t you have said "Operation Moshtarak in southern Afghanistan has two STATED aims" or "NATO SAY Operation Moshtarak in southern Afghanistan has two aims"?
I ask because I am aware the Soviet Union’s publicly stated strategy for their invasion and occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s was "to prevent the establishment of… a terrorist regime and to protect the Afghan people from genocide", and also to provide "aid in stabilising the situation and the repulsion of possible external aggression" (http://www.medialens.org/alerts/07/071120_invasion_a_comparison.php).
I presume you wouldn’t have taken the Soviet Union’s publicly stated reasons for invading and occupying Afghanistan at face value, so why have you done so with the US Government?
I look forward to your reply.
Kind regards
Ian Sinclair
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