war » Scottish Socialist Youth

Congo: 50 years of independence, centuries of oppression

Yesterday marked the celebration of 50 years of independence for the Democratic Republic of Congo. In 1960, Congo was finally able to free itself from one of the most brutal regimes in all of colonial Africa: Belgian control. Of all the European colonial powers, the Belgians were notorious as the worst for their ruthless exploitation [...]

We shouldn't celebrate the British military

Today the city I call home didn’t feel like home for me. The city centre of Glasgow, like towns and cities all over Scotland, played host to a massive display of weaponry, Union Jacks, and mass recruitment to the British military. Today is armed forces day, the second time that an annual “celebration” has been [...]

How to get fired in Afghanistan

This week Obama sacked his top commander in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal. What the affair proves is that, for US commanders, it doesn’t matter how many innocent civilians you kill, or deaths you cover up; what really matters is slagging off colleagues. McChrystal had given exclusive access to a reporter from Rolling Stone, who went [...]

Afghan President threatens to join Taliban, NATO insist he's just playing hard to get

Hamid Karzai first came to western attention after the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, where he was imposed as the President of the divided country. He’s a far cry from scary unshaven one-eyed Taliban head honcho mad bastard Mullah Omar, and other Taliban hardliners – Karzai cuts a dapper figure in sharp suits, possibly [...]

Vote Tory, Nuke China

One bit you might have missed in the leaders’ debate the other night: David Cameron’s justification for why he thinks the UK should retain the capacity to destroy life as we know it by replacing Trident: Quite what scenario that brings China and the UK into a nuclear war is I’m not sure. Maybe Dave’s [...]

US Army caught on camera.

A while ago I did an article about violent videogames, where I jokingly made reference to accidentally shooting civilians in a helicopter gunship. Watching this footage thats been leaked on the internet of insurgents and civilians (including a reuters cameraman) being slaughtered makes you wonder how far war is from a videogame today. The gunship [...]

SSY member James Nesbitt on Afghanistan.

The SSP is standing across Scotland in 10Â constituencies, and alongside opposition to cuts in public services we’ll be making the case for the withdrawal of all British troops from Afghanistan. We’ve had new branches and dozens of new members on the back of our campaign for withdrawal, and were also standing SSY and SSP member [...]

Map of drone attacks in Pakistan

I found the above map via boingboing. It shows attacks by unmanned robotic drones committed by the US within Pakistan. The analysts who produced it write: “Our study shows that the 114 reported drone strikes in northwest Pakistan, including 18 in 2010, from 2004 to the present have killed approximately between 834 and 1,216 individuals, [...]

SSY takes a stand against Skynet

Earlier this year The Guardian reported how a group of police forces and government agencies are working with BAE systems to adapt military drone robots for use in spying on UK citizens. The flying robots are currently used in Iraq, Afghanistan and around the world to monitor and mount attacks by remote. When the US [...]

Scotland, Afghanistan and heroin

When people were protesting against the war in Iraq, “No war for oil!” was one of the main slogans around the world. Of course it’s easy to see that at a simple level the reason why Britain and America invaded Iraq was to do with oil. But things are rarely simple and straight forward when [...]