Afghanistan is lost - bring troops home now say soldiers' families

Funeral of Coporal Channing Day.

WE DO NOT YET KNOW the name of the British soldier killed in Afghanistan yesterday. For another day or so, he or she joins the tens of thousands of Afghan civilians who are the nameless victims of this unjustified and futile war which has now lasted over eleven years.

Forty-four British soldiers have been killed this year, bringing the total since the invasion in 2001 to 438. The latest to die was killed in an "insider attack" by an Afghan in a soldier's uniform. Twelve British soldiers have been killed this year in these so-called "green on blue" attacks.

Soon we will be told the name of the soldier killed yesterday, along with the usual ritualistic statements that "our thoughts and prayers are with his family and loved ones", and "he paid the ultimate sacrifice defending the interests of British national security".

He didn't. The only reason troops are being deployed to kill and die in Afghanistan is to save the face of the politicians and the generals waging a war they cannot bring themselves to admit is lost.

We do know the name of Corporal Channing Day. On 24 October 2012, aged 25, she became the third woman in the British army to be killed in Afghanistan.

Who killed Channing Day? She died while on a patrol overseeing the training of Afghan local police. At first it was thought she was the victim of a "blue on green" attack or she died as a result of "friendly fire". This was corrected later when the army reported that she had been killed in a firefight when her patrol came under attack, from the Taliban or other forces opposing the foreign occupation of Afghanistan.

She was proud to be a soldier in the British army. Her family say she wanted to be a soldier from an early age and joined as soon as she left school, aged 16. It was the life she wanted. "She loved what she did and we are so proud of her," says her sister Lauren.

But when she joined the army, was it with the expectation that she would be sent to fight in illegal or unjustified wars of occupation? Did she expect to be lied to about why Britain was causing such mass slaughter and devastation? Did she think that she would be fighting under the phoney flag of "democracy" and "freedom" in countries where the vast majority of people only wanted the occupying armies to get out of their land? Did she expect to be fighting in wars which were opposed by two thirds of the British public?

Who killed Channing Day? The short answer is those who sent her to fight in this pointless war. When the MP Paul Flynn accused government ministers of lying and using soldiers "as human shields" to protect their reputations, he was thrown out of parliament. But his only crime was to reflect the view of most people in Britain who do not accept the reasons given for waging this war and want the troops brought home now.

Who killed Channing Day? David Cameron was responsible for her being in Afghanistan when he had the power to end the pointless war in which she lost her life. At the current rate, more than 100 British soldiers will die before the end of 2014 -- the supposed exit date for the British army. The blood of every one of them will be on the hands of David Cameron.