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Why Call These Attacks Cowardly?

Scarlett MccGwire says the men who attacked the Britsh Council in Kabul were many things, but cowards they were not.

By Scarlett MccGwire

20 Aug 2011, 08:19

Cowardly seems an odd adjective to use about the attack on the British Council in Kabul. These insurgents, who all died in the ensuing gun battle, must have known this would be the likely outcome. We can call them wrong, bad, evil, war mongering, murderers and worse; but cowards they were not.

This language began with Margaret Thatcher and the IRA. It was not true then nor is it now. While the IRA blew themselves up by accident, part of the problem with the Taliban and Al Qaeda is that their followers are prepared to die to achieve their goals.

The insurgents realised their goal of damaging a British interests on the anniversary of Afghanistan’s independence from Britain by going for the British Council. Were they cowards because they did not try to breach the more heavily guarded British Embassy compound? Surely we should recognise tactics.

The British Council in Kabul is not an ordinary building that people can wander in and out of. It is in a compound, behind walls, protected by armed guards. There were no civilian injures because the people staying there had been drilled in what to do in the event of an attack – go to the safe room.

Many of us might have believed that problems with the Taliban were centred in  Helmand and other rogue provinces, while Kabul had been tamed; this is far from the case. Life in the city for most Westerners, and certainly anybody connected with a government, is staying in heavily guarded compounds, wearing or carrying body armour in case of an attack, and only venturing out with an armed escort. The June attack on the Intercontinental hotel meant many foreigners switched to guarded embassy compounds, and the suicide bombing of the supermarket across the street from the British Embassy in January restricted casual journeys outside the compound.

The tally of attacks in Afghanistan has quadrupled this year compared to 2010, with over 20,000 a month. Kabul might be surrounded by a ‘ring of steel’ but yesterday’s attack, and the many others earlier this year, show how porous that is.    

Afghan insurgents have demonstrated they have not been vanquished. They might be ruthless, extremist, brutal and deadly, but cowards they are not. Senior Labour and Conservative politicians are lowering themselves to the politics of the playground with such name calling.  Let’s get it right.