At this month’s First Wednesday discussion we will be looking at Operation Moshtarak in Afghanistan: its aims, achievements so far and likelihood of success.
With: Homayoun Tandar, Afghanistan’s Ambassador to London; Colonel Stuart Tootal who led the Parachute Regiment battalion that was sent to Helmand in 2006; Emal Pasarly, Multimedia Editor for the BBC Pashto-Persian service and journalist and human rights activist Horia Mosadiq.
Part of the discussion will also be devoted to the role of the media – to what extent we are able to get a true picture of what is going on on the ground?
With: Frontline Club founder Vaughan Smith, who has recently returned from filming in Helmand Province; journalist Stephen Grey; Maj Simon Bergman, who served in the British Military from 1985 to 2006 in Bosnia, Iraq and Afghanistan.
Chaired by Paddy O’Connell, presenter of BBC Radio 4’s Broadcasting House.
Watch Vaughan’s remarkable dispatch from Helmand here…
