We seem to be learning from the Afghans for sure and not just in the field of corruption and the taking of bribes...
by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
It would appear that the longer our involvement with the likes of Iraq and Afghanistan the more the UK turns out the same, at least as far as corruption is concerned and this corruption seems to extend all the way into government. However, when you have the likes of Hamid Karzai as bedfellows something of their methods become part of yours.
This would also apply, it seems, to torture regardless of the “C” of MI6 recently claiming that “we do not torture”. Manuals discovered recently seem to paint an entirely different picture and seem actually actively to encourage the use of inhumane methods.
Britain is slowly becoming, it would appear, like a tin pot dictatorship with someone else in power that the elected government.
Recently we saw the publication of the Transparency International annual Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) and the UK is now 20th in the index. Britain has thus plummeted like a stone from 11th place in 2006 to it's current 20th place.
Both Barbados and Qatar, on the other hand, have overtaken the UK, ranking 17 and 19 respectively. It is time that we really did sit up and took note here.
The index is compiled by aggregating thirteen sources together, ranging from the Economist Intelligence Unit's Country Risk Service through to the World Economic Forum's Global Competitiveness Report. These are boiled down into a set of measures which are then used to rank each country out of ten.
Over the same period as Britain's dramatic fall, four of the top five have remained the same: Sweden, Finland, Denmark, New Zealand, Singapore all scoring over 9.0, with the latter two leading the pack this year on 9.3.
The bottom of the index is traditionally propped up by Somalia, but over 40 per cent of countries score less than 3.0 in the index and can be considered to be very or highly corrupt.
Since 2006, Britain's score has lost 10 per cent, falling from 8.6 to 7.6. However it is not the only country to have suffered a sudden drop in confidence.
In 2006 Iceland was part of the gaggle of Nordic countries leading the index, ranked first with a score of 9.6. This year it comes in in eleventh place with a score of 8.5. This may have something to do about the way it ran its banks, however.
The US, in the meantime, has always struggled to maintain a place in the top 20. This year it comes in at 22nd with a score of 7.1 and is, along with the UK, far below the standard Transparency International labels "very clean".
In comparison, Qatar and Barbados have undoubtedly cleaned up their acts. In 2006 they were 32nd and 24th with scores of 6.0 and 6.7 respectively. This year they score 7.7 and 7.8 respectively.
In addition to that, as I have said above, it now would appear that, much like the USA, the British security services and the military are using harsh interrogation techniques that are tantamount to torture and recently it was revealed that some manuals even support this.
Therefore it is rather laughable when the chief of Britain's Secret Intelligence Service (SIS, aka MI6) make statements to the effect “we do not torture”. No, not at all. We just call it something else and thus it mo longer is, in the same was as do the USA.
Maybe, just maybe, if we cut the tin pot countries of Iraq and Afghanistan loose and let them get on with their own affairs – and please no one come me with “establishing democracy” in those countries – the better it will be for the us, whether in Britain or the United States and maybe, just maybe, we can then clean up our acts.
When one has to bribe the likes of the Iraqis and Afghans and have to allow them to use torture and have to condone it or the good of whatever operation then we get dirty, as nations, and it is more than high time to cut our losses, which were high indeed, and get out.
As far as Afghanistan is concerned let's listen to the Russians. They know what they are talking about when they say that Afghanistan will be another Vietnam and that for the US and all of the NATO forces. The Russians have great experience there as, in fact, have the British. Only the latter have learned nothing from the fiascoes of some centuries ago.
Those that do not remember their history are bound to revisit and relive it.
© 2010
