Monday 7 December 2009

The Toll Rises



The Ministry of Defence has just announced another soldier has been killed in Afghanistan. The soldier, from 1st Battalion The Royal Anglian Regiment, died as a result of small arms fire in central Helmand Province today.

This year 100 of our military have lost their lives in this futile war and the death toll since 2001 is now 237. The number this year may have risen to 100 but tragically there will be more.

Gordon Brown's been orating his 'sympathies' and insisting we must continue to see this 'mission' to the end. The man has no shame or conscience. If he did he would refuse to have our military used as cannon fodder in the front line. Many countries have only provided troops with this condition attached.

Now another family has to suffer the pain of losing a young life and all because our politicians have a taste for war plus a misconceived idea of their own importance. The legacies of Blair and Brown will be recorded as warmongers not peacemakers.

13 comments:

Quiet_Man said...

We can't win so why are we there at all?
In De vita et moribus Iulii Agricolae, as Tacitus put it, (they made a desert and called it peace) that's the only way we could win, but that's unacceptable in a civilised society, shame that those we fight aren't civilised, because that's exactly how they fight.

Time to bring our boys and girls home.

Anonymous said...

Agree with Ronnie, except that I would have added an 'n' to 'unpricipled' and omitted the 'h' from 'chancer'.

subrosa said...

QM I've been pondering that question for years now. My opinion is that we're there because Gordon Brown has to adhere to the US's agenda, if he doesn't then we'll become a minion in the world's eyes. What he doesn't realise we're already that minion - we have the biggest debt in the western world. I could go on but I won't. My blood pressure is rising.

subrosa said...

Ronnie, Blair and Brown both. Don't forget, Brown vanished for days after Blair announced war on Iraq. Brown refused to make a statement. Yet he signed the cheques.

subrosa said...

Aye Edgar and I'm sure you could have inserted a few statements of your own.

CrazyDaisy said...

SR,

You know how I feel, just hope to hell they don't demand that I go again...there could be a riot! :-P

Crazy D

Quinie frae Angus said...

You're right Subrosa about us already being "minions" - that's probably the best we could be described.

Anyone else noticed how different things are when you go abroad now? Years ago, when you said you were from Scotland, people were sometimes interested, sometimes fascinated, sometimes indifferent, but always polite.

Now we're all tarred with the Blair/Brown brush, and you end up in these tortuous discussions about Britain's disgraceful foreign policy over the last which has just dragged us all down into the gutter. It's embarrassing and sickening.

I was working in France on the day of 9/11 and faced three days of hard grilling from my colleagues about "my" role in the collapse of world civilisation as we know it, i.e. that as a "Brit" (and therfore a poodle of the US) I was somehow culpable for goading the terrorists into that action.
I know people were just reacting in a knee jerk way amidst the horror and the shock of that event. But it was a sickener. But that's the reality of how we are viewed, and that was BEFORE Iraq and Afghanistan.

That's why we need independence asap. Tragically we can't bring back the dead who have paid the ultimate price but we can make damn sure nothing like this happens again, in our name.

And those with blood on their hands should be prosecuted and jailed NOW.

Killer said...

War is never the answer...plus there would be enough money to buy a new priminister...that one is very out of date...

Anonymous said...

Killer. We wouldn't ever buy one from the same manufacturer as the last one.

He was broken before we got him out of the box.

subrosa said...

CD, I will be with you on your one man riot. We will make braw looking protestors.

Mind you CD, let's not riot on a rainy day please. I'm fed up getting my hair wet.

subrosa said...

No we can't bring back the dead Quinie but we could stop more being killed if we had a PM with any back bone.

It's a tragedy when any one in public service is killed. It's an abomination when it's a public servant doing their duty in a war which is going to eventually be found to be unjust.

subrosa said...

Killer, tris has answered for me too.

Quinie frae Angus said...

Yes, Subrosa, I couldn't agree more.

"Son o' the Manse" my xxxx. There's nothing remotely spiritual or honest about the man.

And as for the box analogy, as far as I recall we didn't actually ask for that box at all. Such was the man's ruthless ambition and determination to get the job by unelected stealth that the box landed on our doorstep, completely unsolicited and already open, owing to some sort of ongoing problems at Royal Mail.

Junk mail, I think they call it.

Personally, I put all mine in the recycling bin then out on the street.

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