NICOLA Fifield’s article about Joe Glenton (Gazette & Herald, March 10), the soldier sentenced to nine months in military prison because he was absent without leave, also explained that he “questioned the morality and legality of the war” in Afghanistan “which in his view, was unjust, illegal and counter productive”.

The Washington-based Center for Defense Information published a report about the war and it is available on the internet.

It listed the weapons that the US supplied to the Mujahidin, when they were resisting the Soviet invasion, which began in 1979 and ended in 1988.

Among these were “detonating devices for tons of C-4 explosives for urban targets, long-range sniper rifle; a targeting system linked to a US naval satellite; wire-guided anti-tank missiles” and “US-made Stinger antiaircraft missiles”.

By 1987, the CIA was sending a steady supply of 65,000 tons of arms to the Mujahidin (Islamic warriors), which then emerged as the Taliban.

When the US and its allies changed their minds and decided that the Taliban were their enemy, there was still a huge stock of US weapons available to the Taliban.

More than one million Afghans died, millions were injured, and five million became refugees in neighbouring countries.

In addition to the human toll, economic and ecological damage proved enormous and lasting. More than five million mines were still scattered across the Afghan land and millions that remain today are a serious peril to Afghans, as well as foreign ground troops.

We now know from news reports that the Allied air forces have killed and injured many thousand of innocent civilians in Afghanistan, and that shelling and rifle fire has killed many more.

What we don’t know is what benefit has all of this destruction brought to the Afghan people. Joe Glenton has seen through all the hypocrisy indulged in by US and UK politicians and their crocodile tears.

The Afghan war has been a complete disaster from the outset and has served no useful purposed whatsoever, but it has caused the deaths and injuries of thousands of civilians and far too many of our own servicemen.

Ron Florey, Thornton-le-Dale