007 wins Afghan war

This video from Australia is called Malalai Joya‘s speech in Melbourne University – Australia (April 5, 2012). Anti war feminist Malalai Joya was expelled illegally from the Afghan parliament for opposition to the militarist anti woman policies of George W. Bush and his Afghan allies.

From The Economic Times:

James Bond to take on Taliban in new film

LONDON: The 23rd edition of the James Bond franchise will see the super spy taking on the Taliban and heroin barons in Afghanistan.

Will those “barons” in this movie include the brother of President Karzai? Don’t count on it. It is a fiction film.

Media reports say that scriptwriters have been quizzing British Embassy staff in Kabul about life in the war-torn country for the next Bond instalment.

An ex-member of the foreign Office’s Afghan anti-drugs team is also giving an insight into the British operations there.

“They (producers and writers) are trying to get an accurate picture of the military situation (in Afghanistan),” said an insider at Eon Productions, the producers of the franchise.

The film, starring Daniel Craig as 007, is earmarked for release in late 2011.

It reminds me of the Vietnam war. Hundreds of thousands of US soldiers under Johnson and Nixon lost it. Then came Sylvester Stallone in a Rambo movie … and single-handedly “won” in Vietnam! Oh yeah, and in the next movie Rambo also “won” the Afghan war; single -handedly … err … with what later became the Taliban as US allies. At least that last bit was not fictional.

All the US and British troops have been unable to prevent the Afghan war from getting worse, as US General David Petraeus [see also here] said recently. However, secret agent 007 will single-handedly, with the help of a few “Inspector Gadget” style gadgets and bikini clad starlets, turn the tables … yeah right.

The irony of the original James Bond books, on which the original films were based, is that they were written in the 1950s-60s, when the British empire declined into a very junior partner of the USA; as, eg, the Suez crisis (see also here) showed. However, the James Bond novels depict agent 007 as much cleverer, stronger, etc., than his US counterparts … fictional consolation for British nationalists for the harsh reality.

All this would be ridiculous, if not so many people would die in wars like in Vietnam and Afghanistan.

Instead of making war propaganda, the Bond film makers should listen to the sound advice of “Bond girl” Honor Blackman.

Conscientious Objection, Resisting Militarised Society: here.

A top Vietnamese military official has revealed that unexploded ordnance left over from the Vietnam war has killed more than 42,000 people since the conflict ended in 1975: here.

Related articles

• Afghan war has engulfed Pakistan: Fazlur Rehman (dawn.com)
• Speech in support of Wikileaks and against 11 years of war in Afghanistan (antonyloewenstein.com)
• GEN Allen: Insider attacks new signature of Afghan War (waronterrornews.typepad.com)
• The Outcome Of The Afghan War Is Now Hinging Upon ‘Unpaid Donkey Contractors’ (businessinsider.com)
• Dead British officer’s mother on the Afghan war (dearkitty1.wordpress.com)