On the day when Winchester welcomed back its own and Obama sacks his commander in Afghanistan, another British soldier has been killed in Afghanistan.
Once more he was a Royal Marine from 40 Commando Royal Marines and was killed today by small arms fire. The Royal Marines are taking the brunt of the Taliban's insurgency recently and must be feeling the loss of another colleague is a loss too far. We have now lost 303 of our military in this bloody war. Why? Again I ask the question because it has never been answered by our politicians. We're not protecting our country fighting this war. This government is continuing the message of the last one and that PM had no interest in the war. His only interest was ensuring he was internationally recognised as the US's best friend.
Now, in the US, regardless of the messages from the Afghan government supporting General McCrystal, Obama has decided to sack him. I doubt this has little to do with a magazine article but far more to do with personalities.
According to the BBC Obama said he had made the decision because General McCrystal had failed to "meet the standard that should be set by a commanding general". In other words those is charge must toe the political line or else.
It was poor judgement from McCrystal, he ought to have known better, but his comments were personal about members of the US government and did not reflect upon his ability to do his job. Obama is obviously so insecure he has to sack someone he disliked. How will the American public react to this? Will they begin to ask the serious question of their politicians 'Why are we there? and insist on an honest answer. I do hope so.
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11 comments:
What are we doing there? Putting lambs to the slaughter for the benefit of political prowess, despicable.
All our troops have to do then, is each offer a few choice opinions of British politicians.
Simples.
In military terms, senior offices do not express any opinion - good, bad or indifferent- about the supreme commander - POTUS. This is 3rd time McC has opened mouth before putting brain in gear.
Additionally, the civil wing has to control the military wing or things would end uo like some bloody Greek nation.
Your kind responses to my blog go back to January,2009. A time when we agreed that an acceleration of losses and an inevitable defeat would loom. We are getting there and not one politician or leader has the cojones to say it, admit it, get out and save billions.
CH, I read Richard's post just after I published mine. I many ways he mirrors my own opinions.
Aye Joe, I thought that myself. Mind you, I doubt if David Cameron would recall one of ours for such a petty reason. The recall was not because of McCrystal's indiscretion but in spite of it perhaps.
John, that's the protocol of our armed forces. The US appear to do things differently don't you think? They were quick to criticise the British in Iraq without any consequence from Westminster.
Aye OR, we started on this subject then. Goodness it seems, to me anyway, I'm banging my head off a brick wall. But it's important to me to keep the subject in the public eye.
I think many of us thought we WERE expressing our opinions when we voted for Obama. It would be difficult to tell you how distressed I am that he has not only kept us there but increased our involvement and pressured allies to do the same.
The number who oppose the war is not as high nor as adamant as I would like, but there is no doubt that it is opposed by most Americans.
There are no doubt more recent polls but this one is reasonably recent and I think is probably fairly typical of US attitudes.
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/behind-the-numbers/2010/06/public_remains_unfriendly_on_a.html
Oops... meant to include this.
Many thanks for the link Jeanne and also your comment. I was hoping you would give an opinion.
The way I see it from here is that Americans have been very low key about Afghanistan which I thought unusual because they can be more vocal than us here. Maybe they'll speak up a little more now McKrystal has been fired because they can see Obama's values aren't theirs.
Not only is the firing a kick in the teeth to the US soldiers fighting there but also to the Afghans who pleaded from him to keep McKrystal in place.
What a mess.
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