... Returning home after his initial tour, he decided to read into the history of the conflict, which raised further doubts. After seven months at home, he was told he had to go back to Afghanistan, where his suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) was ridiculed by his commander, who called him a “coward” for not wanting to continue a second tour.
Eventually he made his way out of the country and around Asia, where he suffered a mental breakdown and began drinking and using drugs. He later returned to the UK to face the music, handing a letter to then Prime Minister Gordon Brown in the process, informing the statesman that the war had “caused immeasurable suffering not only to families of British service personnel who have been killed and injured, but also to the noble people of Afghanistan”.
The note also stated that British soldiers were now a “tool of American foreign policy” and finished with a refusal to “believe that our cause in Afghanistan is just or right.”
The right wing has, predictably, attempted to brand Glenton as nothing more than a coward who deserted his fellow soldiers and his country. Far from being set upon in military prison by outraged patriots, however, other soldiers were remarkably supportive. At one point, the imprisoned soldier was receiving around two hundred letters a day, from all parts of the world, expressing admiration.
However, Glenton's case is only unique in the sense that he was caught in the process of defecting from the military. In an interview with the British newspaper, The Guardian, he claimed that: “11,000 have gone AWOL since 2003, but the army keep it quiet. The public needs to know because they're paying for court martials and military prisons. They need to know why people are refusing to fight.”
Chaos, Duplicity and Collateral Damage
Britain has shouldered much of the burden in terms of the conflict in Afghanistan; the nation is the second largest contributor of armed force after the United States. The official figure for serviceman killed in action stands at close to 300, a definite increase over fatalities suffered in Iraq.
In addition to the stress of military casualties, the Ministry of Defence (MOD) has tried to downplay deaths of civilians, even going as far as to arrest one officer for allegedly leaking information on the death of non-combatants to a human rights organization. In 2009 Lt-Col Owen McNally was flown back to the UK after supposedly handing details of “collateral damage” to Rachel Reid, who was working for Human Rights Watch (HRW). Ms. Reid denies such an exchange took place, claiming she met with the Colonel just twice and each time in a professional capacity.
The MOD followed up the arrest with an allegation that Ms. Reid had somehow been romantically involved, perhaps manipulating the British officer into giving up information.
Although the Lt-Col McNally was released, HRW later published a 43-page report detailing Afghan civilian deaths: 939 in 2006 followed by a staggering 1633 in 2009. Of the latter figure, 321 were supposedly due to NATO air strikes. The Taliban, however, are said to be far ahead of the coalition forces in killing civilians.
HRW later carried an article detailing “leaked documents” which alluded to indications that the “US underreported civilian casualties by US and NATO forces because of incorrect information in after-action reports.”
HRW also complained of a particularly callous attitude on the part of military fact-finders that only served to further inflame anti-western sentiments. Ms. Reid spoke of a consistent practice of "ignoring the protests of the families of the dead and the Afghan government” which she claimed only serves to “compounds the outrage that Afghans feel when civilians are killed.” ...
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