MY GREEN JOBS

MY GREEN JOBS SUGGESTIONS:  Exclude jobs building extensions for HS2, Metro, Sprint and 87 Kms WOM and in armaments, including WMD expansion.

Instead, go for making buses electric on bus priority roads, trains back on railway lines, exp to finish the 120 Kms Black Country Railway and the regional 50 Kms of freight-only railway lines without passenger trains.

Small to medium-sized homes that are built to Passivhaus standard with PV on every E,W,S facing roof.

PV retrofitted to every other roof and external/internal insulation to every building.

120 Kms Black Country Cycle-Walk Mudway made fit for purpose as a major business, commuter and leisure route for walkers, cyclists and horse riders.

Every towpath made available for 100% self-powered cycles, plus e-bikes, with an all-weather surface for responsible shared use.

JOBS in bringing in petrol/diesel fuel rationing for all private motorists as was done in the 1973/4  energy crisis.  Now it’s climate crisis.  Even more urgent! Meanwhile, join my voluntary car mileage reduction idea - 50% cut on my 2019 mileage!

Invite Jonathon Porritt to Green Jobs summit via -  JPOffice@forumforthefuture.org

From: -   timweller1@gmail.com

"a glimmer of hope" from the FT

Wind and solar energy use is expected to be up by a third this year, from 2019 levels, for example. 

The value of global subsidies on fossil fuels dropped by more than 40 per cent in 2020, compared with the previous year. And, divestments of fossil fuel assets by pension funds, educational institutions, governments and other organisations continued to rise — up to $14tn in 2020 from $11.5tn the previous year. But, the authors conclude, the scale of climate action presently is not enough to reverse key trends of concern. 

https://www.ft.com/content/a52f32ea-c9ed-4bcd-8eef-8eb9ca8da2b1

Two fun thoughts! Which is the better joke?

JOKE 1

Over the decades, only a handful if that, of people have said or written to me that they agree with me over finishing the ready-built, 120 Kms (74 mls) Black Country Railway - finishing it with TRAINS!

JOKE 2

For forty years, this year, our elected representatives have been busily keeping trains off urban railway lines and, instead, putting everything but the kitchen sink on them.  In fact, the great joke is that with our railways with trams going on them, it is just like the experts wanting to put London Underground trains on the HS1, London to Paris Eurostar!

Mon 13 June to Friday 17 June 2022 at Abercynafon

Dear friends - Mary, Narelle, Alison, Linda; Gordon, Peter, David

I am in a dilemma.  Last week was published the most shocking and frightening report ever from the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change out of the many they have written in assessing and summarising the science since their formation in 1988.

I am a worried Weller about my responsibility over the forty years that I have known about the seriousness of human-induced climate change but, have gone along with everyone else in living it up and hoping that the problem would go away.  Now, I think, the chickens are coming home to roost with the disturbed climate patterns and extreme weather events that I remember reading about, from the climate scientists, in the 1980s and 90s - and ever since!

With my car insurance that I took out in December 2020, I have now undertaken to cut my 2021 car mileage by 50% on the 2019 total.  I am on target by cutting my minimum 70 mpg at max 65 mph on 70 mph roads and going to Scotland twice this year instead of six times in 2019.  I am using the car to visit Becky, Tim and Gwennan and either walking or cycling to visit Jonathan, Jayne and Jemima.

We keep to a maximum of 20 C for the room we sit in and lower temperatures in the other rooms and lag ourselves with clothing layers.

I've gone from dairy milk to Oatly milk; had a Vegan breakfast on three occasions on our five-night hotel holiday in Cheshire this year and we are both being powered by plants more than ever!

Our June get together next year

God willing, Covid permitting and depending on your wishes nearer the time, Linda and I are suggesting we still meet up at Abercynafon Farm near Talybont on Usk for the four nights for the price of three.  But I would like to suggest that we do our very best to minimise our use of the cars once we are there, even with car-sharing as we do, anyway.

Linda and I will bring our bikes.  Is there any chance of the rest of you bringing bikes and e-bikes, perhaps?  And then we could explore the local area on foot and on bike!  What do you think?

A more leisurely and retreat-like four days of, in addition, talking and reading.

"Abercynafon Farm Barn is four miles from Talybont-on-Usk with its village shop / cafe, the Monmouthshire and Brecon Canal and four pubs (one of them Camra award-winning). Brecon, Crickhowell, Abergavenny and Hay-on-Wye are all within half an hour's drive.

"But you don't have to venture that far. The peaks of the Brecon Beacons, The peaceful Brecon and Monmouthshire Canal and the beautiful Blaen y Glyn waterfalls and Talybont Reservoir are, quite literally, on our doorstep."

I suggest main meals in the pubs but we share out breakfasts and lunches as usual.  Four couples, four breakfast/lunches - Tues, Wed, Thurs, Fri.  Four Bible-based thoughts at breakfast.

Speeding motorbikes and cars on A456

WMP reference: 20DY/42382G/21

I was on my 100% self-powered bike on the A456 between the M5 and Grange roundabout yesterday evening, between 9 and 10 pm when the motorbikes and highly tuned cars went screaming past on both carriageways.  I will report it to W Mids Police via: -

https://www.west-midlands.police.uk/contact-us/report-crimeincident

and copy this onto the site, word for word.  I will also ask our MP James Morris and our three councillors to support us.  I will write to them about what they have done.  What help have we had, can someone tell me, please?  Has a single one shown any interest, do we know?

This behaviour is the very kind that is worsening the climate emergency as we all burn up our finite fossil fuels as if they will never run out.  And, it brings the disturbed climate patterns and extreme weather events that climate scientists have been reporting since 1988 "whose findings are endorsed by the world's governments."  Yet no action from them in 30 years!

Yesterday morning, I cycled up Manor Lane and saw a WMP speed camera van parked as every motorist went obediently past.  Later that day, it needed to be in the Manor Way layby on the eastbound carriageway between Manor Lane and the M5.  Or, preferably, from 9 pm, parked fully in the nearside lane, exactly halfway between the Manor Lane traffic lights and the M5, to narrow the road to the offside lane, only.  That would solve the problem nicely.

I am asking the Police to catch our selfish, thoughtless and ignorant motorists who are worsening climate catastrophe and speeding the exhaustion of our fossil fuels to bring us all down.  BUT IT NEEDS EVERY ONE OF US TO REPORT IT TO

https://www.west-midlands.police.uk/contact-us/report-crimeincident

AND EVERY TIME.

And that includes me as my wife and I try to get to sleep between 10 and 11 on many nights.  From now on I will report it, every time, the following morning, as I'm doing now!   timweller1@gmail.com

The climate on steroids - we have turned up the dial to make weather events more extreme and more likely

"Human activity is changing the world's climates in unprecedented and sometimes irreversible ways says the 9 Aug 2021 IPCC report from a group of scientists whose findings are endorsed by the world's governments.  A landmark report and a code red for humanity.  It is no longer a warning about the future.  Scientists now say they are virtually certain that the rising incidence and intensity of dangerous heatwaves and other extreme weather events that we have seen in recent times, including this year, can be attributed to human-induced climate warming."

"The world will warm until the middle of the century whatever path we take."  As long as global temperatures are rising and currently they are doing that at a rate that has not been seen for at least 2,000 years and the world is warmer now than it has been in at least 125,000 years

"... these extremes are only getting worse.  ... the climate is changing so fast that there are more extreme and unprecedented extremes to come.

We need to halve emissions by 2030 and be at net zero by the middle of the century."

Dr Friedericke Otto - climate scientist

BBC 'Inside Science', 12 Aug 2021

This behaviour is the very kind that is worsening the climate emergency as we all burn up our finite fossil fuels as if they will never run out. And, it brings the disturbed climate patterns and extreme weather events that climate scientists have been reporting since 1988 "whose findings are endorsed by the world's governments." Yet no action from them in 30 years!

Crucial para from "of national strategic significance"

8 March 2018 from DfT

I have sought clarification on the situation from Network Rail, who inform me

that this is a section of railway of national strategic significance. Investment in

the corridor would allow for continued freight growth given that the other SW-

NE route (via Bromsgrove) is already at full daytime capacity. From a

passenger perspective, safeguarding a heavy rail corridor across the Round

Oak-Bescot route is of value as this is the only corridor which could accept

freight traffic displaced by further passenger flows into central Birmingham. I

understand from Network Rail that recent discussion on the project has

therefore focused around how best to balance the interests of freight and

passenger rail traffic.

to Steve Caudwell

 You're right, Steve. Best is drastic cut in finite fossil fuel use; restraint, even sacrifice with my 50% cut in my car mileage with less travelling, more pushbike use. Mitigation jobs only to help cut greenhouse gases in medium to long term. So, wealthy must support the rest.

Please tell me if I am wrong, here! Or, simply reply!

Please tell me if I am wrong, here!  Or, simply reply!

I am anxious to know if you think I am wrong in saying and writing that the more we spend the more we emit greenhouse gases.  Am I right or wrong, here?

£s spent = finite fossil fuels burnt = greenhouse gases = runaway greenhouse effect = earth turned into venus = THE END.

If I am right, should we be opposing unnecessary expenditures like extensions for HS2, Metro and Sprint that are extremely large greenhouse gas emitters because of their colossal expenditure?

Do you think I am wrong in insisting that we must put fossil fuel expenditure into projects that will cut greenhouse gases in the medium to long term?

Therefore, electric buses (not "bus on rails" trams on roads), all the obvious bus priority measures and FFPT.  Is that right?

Not trams on railway lines but commuter and regional trains.  Is that right?

The ending of demolition and rebuilding - like Centenary Sq rebuilt three times in less than twenty years and many examples of unnecessary demolition and rebuilding, eg Dudley Leisure Centre moved all of 1 Km to sit next to the flash, new tramline in Flood Street, Dudley?

Do you think that these jobs are the wrong jobs?

Do you think the right, green jobs are to insist that existing buildings are insulated, inside and out; should have URGENT installation of PV solar on every east, west, south-facing roof?

Are the right, green jobs to campaign for the major, 22 Kms Black Country Cycle-Walk Mudway to be professionally finished and upgraded with a wider and this time, all-weather surface to allow all fossil-free users to actually use the thing?

Am I right in wanting expenditure to put a cycle-walkway alongside the Dudley Southern Bypass, opposite the tramline?

Am I right in wanting green jobs to finish the 47 Kms of the UK's last and only mothballed mainline railway that has not yet been completely destroyed?  Finished with commuter and regional and freight TRAINS!

Do we get green jobs from light rail trams (LR), or very light trams (VLR) or, the ultra-light rail Stourbridge Shuttle tram on the missing 6 Kms (out of 120 Kms former and remaining throughout mainline) railway link between Stourbridge Jct and Brierley Hill?

Do green jobs mean putting passenger trains on the 106 Kms of mothballed or freight-only railway lines in the W Mids?  Now being reduced to 100 Kms with the Metro, WBHE, going on 6.7 Kms in two nibble-sized bites and the VLR test track on 2 Kms to bring it down to 98 Kms!!

Am I on the right lines, here?  Or, please tell me if I am wrong.  Not one person ever tells me I am wrong and, certainly, no-one ever writes back to tell me I am right - just complete apathy, acquiescence and silence!  I've had the best and longest support over the years from a train driver who has now resigned from his union in disgust over their support for railway destruction!

Petition

6596186029

Respond effectively to the Climate Emergency and promote good health by getting the nation walking using SAFE stiles, with FOOTSTEPS and, SAFE FOOTBRIDGES no longer closed along with their approach footpaths.

Rickety stiles or stiles without footsteps and closed or missing footbridges are no encouragement to get out and enjoy the great outdoors.

Make it easier for shorter and older walkers put off by stiles that need an undignified struggle to get over.

Self-closing, metal GATES are best; not old-fashioned wooden stiles!

MORE DETAIL: I think it is so important to have simply the ability to roam on existing footpath infrastructure and bridges that is being taken away from us through neglect and the passage of time.  That kind of right to roam is pretty basic but is being lost.

We cannot even be given the right to roam on public paths and footbridges, let alone expecting what is either side to be given to us as open access land!

Having more land designated as open access when it is already, unofficially available would be nice to have but, it is access to existing official rights of way that must come first and be foremost in any campaign, I think.  I am deliberately hi-jacking the "right to roam" phrase for a much more noble and vital cause!

Right to roam on rights of way

IN SHORT:

We cannot even be given the right to roam on public paths and footbridges, let alone expecting what is either side to be given to us as open access land!

MORE DETAIL:

However, I chose 'Right to roam on rights of way' (it has a nice ring about it and I love alliteration!) because I do feel that right to roam on publicly owned land, as at the South Downs, north of Brighton last month, is already happening without any repercussions, whatsoever.  It does not even need new stiles or gates or footbridges!  Therefore, that campaign is far less important than enabling access for walkers who have difficulty clambering over rickety stiles rotting away and, without steps.  In addition, of course, footbridges and their attendant rights of way are closed permanently, even for the vast majority who can easily climb stiles, because local authority funding is never available for this very basic, elementary kind of right to roam.

I fear the phrase, "right to roam" is being used to invite trespass on wealthy people's private land.  Although I do that myself, it is either unintentional or, always done to ask for the permission of the very first person I come across in the hope that he/she is the landowner.  In addition, we need to keep the very blessed wealthy landowners on board to give us permissive paths on old railway lines and, even to fund stile replacement/maintenance and for footbridges to be replaced/maintained.  After eleven years of austerity, we are becoming more and more dependant on the wealthy to sponsor, to donate and to help out the state's insistence that taxes - even from the wealthy - must be kept as low as possible.

I think it is far more important to have simply the ability to roam on existing footpath infrastructure that is being taken away from us through neglect and the passage of time.  That kind of right to roam is pretty basic but is being lost.

I do think that with this present kind of Conservative government, with the Police Bill, HS2, cutting overseas aid but vastly boosting expenditure on the arms trade, armaments and nuclear weapons, it is totally unrealistic to expect them to even countenance their donors and supporters giving us the freedom to roam, officially and without prior permission, all over their vast private estates, largely given over to arable and dairy farming anyway - unlike swathes of upland in Scotland that has full open access.

Having more land designated as open access when it is already, unofficially available would be nice to have but, it is access to existing official rights of way that must come first and be foremost in any campaign, I think.  I am deliberately hi-jacking the "right to roam" phrase for a much more noble and vital cause!

Guardian on bleak prospects for COP 26

Governments’ recovery plans are increasingly falling short of what is needed to reach existing climate goals, never mind new ones. Globally, carbon emissions are again set to rise in 2023, not fall. The world is in danger of losing the path towards net zero. That failure comes down partly to money and partly to politics. Today, as in the past, responsibility should be widely shared. European countries, the UK included, often talk a better game than they play. On Thursday, Angela Merkel admitted as much about Germany’s record. “We can’t continue at the current pace but have to up the tempo,” she conceded.

There is little concrete evidence that Britain, as the Cop26 host nation, has done enough to make sure this happens. The task remains urgent. Without big developing countries such as Brazil and India on board, agreement is difficult, and these countries know they have bargaining power. The biggest carbon emitter remains China, where totals are still rising, and the US, whose emissions are falling but historically (and per capita) far exceed China’s. Together they are responsible for 40% of global emissions, so without them nothing decisive is achievable. The US climate change special envoy, John Kerry, is pledging extra money to support global climate initiatives but insists there will be no trade-off with China on human rights in order to secure a stronger climate deal. If an adequate agreement can still be reached, then Cop26 may yet be a success. But the clock is ticking and the stakes are getting ever higher.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jul/23/the-guardian-view-on-the-climate-summit-100-days-to-save-the-world

Thatcher alerted to climate science but then reverted to scepticism

The 1984/5 national coal miners' strike was before Mgt Thatcher was alerted to climate change from burning finite fossil fuels by Crispin Tickell who "is widely acknowledged as the man who persuaded Thatcher to adopt the climate cause, and was responsible for drafting much of her speech to the Royal Society" on 27 Sept 1988.

(Brendan Montague, 21.8.18;  FROM: -  https://theecologist.org/2018/aug/21/how-margaret-thatcher-came-sound-climate-alarm) 

Margaret Thatcher was at the height of her premiership when she took to the podium at the United Nations general assembly on the global environment held at the UN building in New York on 8 November 1989, writes BRENDAN MONTAGUE

LIVING IN DENIAL

The fool has said in his heart there is no ... God/climate change/unintended consequences for our enthusiastic "Go forth and multiply ... fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the earth and every living thing that moves upon the earth."  (Genesis 1 v 28)

Sixth Mass Extinction episode - and that's us, would you believe!  What is happening is a tragedy for humanity.  In the process, we are bringing down all other life forms.

I think, we humans have exhibited hubris, folly and, short-sightedness in thinking that we can live infinitely on a finite planet and unnaturally on a natural planet.  And, thinking it would not have, eventually the most unfortunate of consequences for us all.

We had the intelligence but not the wisdom.

We had the knowledge going back to the 1850s but still failed to take seriously what scientists, Eunice Foote and John Tyndall had discovered - and reinforced and confirmed ever since.

We even had Margaret Thatcher, as here:

How right Margaret Thatcher was when she said, on the 27 September 1988, in a speech to the Royal Society,

"For generations, we have assumed that the efforts of mankind would leave the fundamental equilibrium of the world's systems and atmosphere stable. But it is possible that with all these enormous changes (population, agricultural, use of fossil fuels) concentrated into such a short period of time, we have unwittingly begun a massive experiment with the system of this planet itself. (my emphasis)

"Recently three changes in atmospheric chemistry have become familiar subjects of concern. The first is the increase in the greenhouse gases—carbon dioxide, methane, and chlorofluorocarbons—which has led some [end p4] to fear that we are creating a global heat trap which could lead to climatic instability. We are told that a warming effect of 1°C per decade would greatly exceed the capacity of our natural habitat to cope. Such warming could cause accelerated melting of glacial ice and a consequent increase in the sea level of several feet over the next century. This was brought home to me at the Commonwealth Conference in Vancouver last year when the President of the Maldive Islands reminded us that the highest part of the Maldives is only six feet above sea level. The population is 177,000. It is noteworthy that the five warmest years in a century of records have all been in the 1980s—though we may not have seen much evidence in Britain!

FROM: -  https://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/107346

The exploitation of finite fossil fuels was a rush to the blood that is now bringing catastrophe.  Even turning earth into our sister or twin planet, venus seems to be the uncomfortable reality.  Fossil fuels are a mixed blessing, indeed.

A brilliant but brief tenure on planet earth for homo sapiens!

The first book of the Bible is optimistic about our future, that we humans are the top dogs in creation and can do as we like with the rest of creation.  The last book acknowledges that "the first heaven and the first earth had passed away and the sea was no more."  It has the promise of "a new heaven and a new earth" and "the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God ... for the former things have passed away".  (Revelation 21 v 1-4)  The best has yet to come.

However, none of us should be helping things along by knowing about the threats facing us but then doing nothing.

Train spotters who never spotted that their beloved railways were being destroyed!

Good morning, Mark and, in the FoE corner, Bill, Gerald, John, David and Chris - friends over the years who are welcome to comment, please!

Thanks for this Mark.  I am disappointed by the railway industry and Railfuture that is out to grow their business with projects like Crossrail 2 and HS2 that will spew yet more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere to worsen our prospects because, all the spending, adds to the runaway greenhouse effect and the planet's Sixth Mass Extinction episode (our own).  Happy days!

At the same time, they have spent the years since 1945 closing railway lines as we went out to buy and use cars with ever greater enthusiasm but, then, being content with seeing their own closed railway lines destroyed without a murmur of protest, let alone the vigorous (fairly vigorous, along with much else) campaign that I have indulged in since the mid-90s!

The railway industry and Railfuture have also supported the light rail, tram industry taking over heavy rail lines to further add to the loss of capacity on our railway network!

The railway enthusiasts, yet again, have started to destroy a perfectly good railway line - the Black Country Mainline through Dudley, Sandwell and Walsall.  The six other railway lines in Dudley, alone are already gone for ever but, then, they want HS2 as a greenfield railway only a little less damaging than a greenfield motorway.  However, colossally more expensive than motorway building!  Over £200 m/Km for HS2; £21 m/Km for M6 Toll when it opened in Dec 2003.

What do you make of that, Mark, David, Chris, et al?  Is my reasoning right, do you think?

The green movement supports tram extensions

Dear Ros

Thanks so much for your email.

I was anxious that you only did the very minimum re my bike ride that I am inviting anyone else on, because I was not wanting to make more work for you or, for it to be made into a big thing.  The 22 Kms Mudway is VERY BIG, however!!  Doing the "minimum" was simply to copy exactly what I had written to go on our Facebook page, please.  Last time it was Roy Sadler of Transition and I who did the bike ride.  This time it will be a neighbour of mine accompanying me.  But anyone else is still welcome as an informal, friends, unofficial, bike ride.  I don't think even my son will join me but we'll see!

I started the campaign for our Mudway transformed to official, smart, swish Cycle-Walkway in April 2018 with an email to Stuart Everton, Black Country Director of Transport.  It is the Dudley cycle improvement of the very top importance.  The second is for a cycle-walkway along the south side of Duncan Edwards Way, opposite the tramline.  Having a video made would be a first-ever for me in a lifetime of "He asked and pleaded for the bleeding obvious and was a successful failure every time" (my epitaph!).  A video of the mudway would be an entirely out-of-reach, Olympic-style, Gold medal to achieve!!

Your  "improvements to public transport to encourage people out of their cars" is what I have always heard from FoE, Green Party, every other green/transport organisation and member of the wider green movement since I started fighting Metro in the 1990s.  Apart from Bill Mellens of Walsall FoE the other day, not one other person has ever written to me or said to me (in Zoom, in person or in writing) that they agree with me over Metro.  Because it is public transport the very people who I thought would be helping me fight it have never done so, as far as I am aware!  Fighting road schemes like the KBH and WOM, yes - definitely.  But never Metro "bus on rails" trams because it is public transport!!

Please do try and get another meeting with Patrick H.  And if you can ask him about my concerns (and blame me) that would be wonderful but don't worry if not.  I can always try to nobble him, once more, myself!!  He does know me, quite well.

You, Marie and Chris were brilliant in putting the finishing of the ready-built, 120 Kms Black Country Railway in our Dudley FoE Climate Action Plan.  Still needed on 47 Kms where they don't put trams.  THANKS SO MUCH!

All the best.  Please ring, anytime Ros for a chat on 0791 380 4363 or 0121 550 9446.  It would be lovely to talk.

8 Aug 21 cycle ride

Will anyone join me for a cycle ride in August on the major business, commuter and leisure, off-road route on the 22 Kms Black Country Cycle-Walk Mudway? SUNDAY AFT, 8 AUGUST. Meet 3 pm at Fens Pool Avenue/Stourbridge Road (A461), Brierley Hill. Some mud is to be expected, so no flash racing bikes, please! We turn back when we want to. MORE INFO: timweller1@gmail.com and 0791 380 4363

e-mail to Ros on 28.7.21 re mudway, Harley

Dear Ros - and please could this go to all on your list/database?  Thanks!

Will anyone join me for a cycle ride in August on the major business, commuter and leisure, off-road route on the 22 Kms Black Country Cycle-Walk Mudway? SUNDAY AFT, 8 AUGUST. Meet 3 pm at Fens Pool Avenue/Stourbridge Road (A461), Brierley Hill. Some mud is to be expected, so no flash racing bikes, please! We turn back when we want to. MORE INFO: timweller1@gmail.com and 0791 380 4363

When you next meet with Patrick Harley, could you raise the wasted mainline railway with him, please, Ros?  Or, could you invite me to explain about this very last of the seven wasted railways in Dudley?

When you next meet with Patrick, please could you ask him to act on the major business, commuter and leisure route, known as the 22 Kms Black Country Cycle-Walk Mudway from Fens Pool Avenue, Brierley Hill to NW Wolverhampton.  Or, get me along to explain!  I would love to take people to the winter mudway and the railway.  Is there anyone up for a cycle ride on part of the 22 Kms before the winter rains come?!  SEE ABOVE

Thanks for all your hard work, Ros on our behalf and, have a great time if you are going away.

Lord David Richards, former Chief of the Defence Staff, 31.7.2021

who commanded all Western forces in Afghanistan in 2006/7.

He used the words, 'nadir' and 'defeat' in Afghanistan but added that what happened in Iraq, Libya and Syria.  And, it is a pretty sorry tale of Western failed GO strategy over the last twenty years and its time we had an explanation of why and what we are now going to do about it.

"Weren't mistakes made earlier?" asked Mishal Husain.

I accept my share of the blame, said Lord Richards.

We introduced democracy and that allows them to hope for the future and that is at great risk with no substitute strategy.

"But is this not an impossible mission to control a country like Afghanistan", asked Mishal Husain?

The Afghans don't want to be ruled by the Taliban and successive elections have proved that.  This is not some popular uprising.  This is a brutal and effective military force driven by some very hardline ideology that wants to impose themselves on the vast majority of the people of Afghanistan.  

Frank Gardner on Afghanistan deaths 17 April 2021

FROM: - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-56770570

The cost of this 20-year military and security engagement has been astronomically high - in lives, in livelihoods and in money. Over 2,300 US servicemen and women have been killed and more than 20,000 injured, along with more than 450 Britons and hundreds more from other nationalities.

But it is the Afghans themselves who have borne the brunt of the casualties, with over 60,000 members of the security forces killed and nearly twice that many civilians.

The estimated financial cost to the US taxpayer is close to a staggering US$1 trillion. 

Twenty years on, the country is still not at peace. According to the research group Action on Armed Violence, 2020 saw more Afghans killed by explosive devices than in any other country in the world. Al-Qaeda, Islamic State (IS) and other militant groups have not disappeared, they are resurgent and doubtless encouraged by the imminent departure of the last remaining Western forces.  END of Gardner's report

FROM: -

Afghanistan: Record civilian casualties in 2021, UN reports

Afghan civilians were killed or injured at record levels in the first half of this year as violence escalated, the UN says.

A new report says Afghanistan recorded more than 1,600 civilian deaths so far in 2021. That's a 47% rise compared with this time last year.

And the UN warns the number of deaths could rise still further.

Government forces have been fighting Taliban insurgents, who now control large parts of the country.

Most international forces have withdrawn after a mission lasting nearly 20 years.

FROM:-  https://www.rescue-uk.org/country/afghanistan

Women and girls should never be a target of violence

• The IRC is horrified and outraged by the barbaric bomb attack on the Sayed-u-Shohada Girls’ School in Afghanistan, which killed more than 50 people.

• Afghanistan continues to be one of the most dangerous places for civilians and children, and attacks targeting them are a gross violation of international humanitarian law.

• All parties in Afghanistan must stop this terrible violence immediately. The IRC is calling on the International community to support peace efforts