Can the Afghan police be trusted?
David Blackburn 6:28pm
Lindsey Hilsum, Channel 4’s Helmand correspondent asked local Police Chief, Colonel Asadullah Shirzard, if the police were sufficiently free from corruption to manage the forthcoming election. The corpulent Colonel declaimed: “We have eradicated corruption in our police force!”
This is a seminal moment. Rudy Giuliani couldn’t do it, Sir Ian Blair failed, though that’s no surprise, and moving around Venezuela will confirm that even Hugo Chavez can’t stop his police taking a cut from the downtrodden population. But in war-torn Helmand, the perfect police force has been born.
As Hilsum notes, this is even more extraordinary when one considers that Helmand is the centre of the opium trade and that the British army have started drug testing Afghan police officers because “many of those who deal in opium use it as well”. If Colonel Shirzard’s force counts as ‘free from corruption’ in Afghanistan, I dread to think what doesn’t. To be fair the Colonel eventually conceded that he had “nearly eradicated” corruption, but even so.
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David Ossitt
August 11th, 2009 7:35pm Report this commentCan the Afghan police be trusted?
No; not ever, no way.
Herbert Thornton
August 11th, 2009 11:06pm Report this commentCorruption takes different forms, one of which is bloody-minded Political Correctness.
That being so, we can equally ask - "Can the British Police be trusted?"
Austin Barry
August 11th, 2009 11:55pm Report this commentThis is just silly - the whole bloody, corrupt, nasty little Stone Age Dystopia can't be trusted. Let's just leave them to tribalism and Islam and send in the occasional drone to put manners on the opium barons. Everything else is a murderous pursuit of the futile.
Archie
August 12th, 2009 5:30am Report this commentWell said, Herbert Thornton! But soft! It's coming to a Canadian province near you!
Chuck Unsworth
August 12th, 2009 12:38pm Report this commentShort answer - NO.
Long answer - Under no circumstances, ever.
Verity
August 12th, 2009 3:59pm Report this commentWhat Austin Barry said.
Herbert Thornton
August 13th, 2009 3:53am Report this commentArchie - It's already arrived in Canada. In this Brave New World, so-called "Human Rights" Commissions and Tribunals now act as Thought Police and operate as Kangaroo Courts and punish people who exhibit politically incorrect behaviour or express politically incorrect opinions.
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