Yet again another of our armed services has been killed in Afghanistan, while politicians decide how much of our money they will distribute to the cause of interfering in another country's politics. Why can't we leave countries to sort out their own problems? History has proved that we cannot impose our values upon others without too many sacrifices of life and we have no moral right to do so.
The MoD named the soldier as Acting Cpl Barnsdale, from 33 Engineer Regiment, who was clearing improvised explosive devices when one detonated in the area east of Gereshk on Tuesday. It was his second tour of duty in the country.
A total of 341 British troops have died in Afghanistan since 2001.
More and more information is becoming available about the Afghanistan war and this gives an insight into this dirty war.
In Africa on Friday, a British civilian explosive expert was killed in South Sudan while clearing mines near the town of Kapoeta. Most recently he had been leading teams of trained Sudanese mine clearance workers in removing landmines threatening communities in and around Kapoeta. IEDs are responsible for thousands of civilian and military deaths around the world yet we have not invented a method of destroying them quickly and safely.
A referendum on independence for South Sudan is scheduled to be held in January 2011 but, regardless of the outcome, the country will have to spend decades ridding itself of these deadly weapons left from Africa's longest running civil war. Many thousands of innocent people will be killed in the meantime. There's no glory in war but for some there is so much financial reward that they consider the loss of lives a cost worth paying. They are the real warmongers.
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16 comments:
first through the door, i must have got up too early Rosie!
You are of course right in that those who profit from war are the war mongers and sow dissention wherever they can. no concern of theirs that people will die as a result of their 'business'.
My worry now is the dissention being sown in our own country, problems deliberately put in place allowed to fester and then not sanctioned severely to stop conflagration breaking out.Soon there will be war on our streets and the Lebanon will look like a quiet place to be...
The reporting of just UK military casualties by the MSM gives a false picture of Afghanistan. One would be forgiven in thinking that casualties are not occuring on a larger scale. This gives the impression that Afghanistan is becoming safer.
However, if one takes the whole picture of casualties of every nation involved it's blatantly obvious that Afghanistan is much more of a mess than the MSM would have us believe.
See here http://icasualties.org/OEF/Nationality.aspx?hndQry=France
Click on the various countries for details. Just the latest fatal casulaties of some individual countries. Brackets are age of casualty :-
24/8/10 Australian (28), 30/8/10 Canadian (21), 10/9/10 Italian (27), 10/7/10 German (26), 25/8/10 Spanish (33), 15/10/10 French (39), 22/9/10 Danish (22), 14/10/10 Polish (28), 10/1/10 Romanian (26), 19/10/10 USA (24).
l can't find figures for civilian casualties for 2010 but in 2009 it was around 2,400
Not only should we (the UK) stop interfering in another country's affairs, but we should also stop pouring money into them!
Or I must have slept too late Indyan. :)
And your worry won't be reduced by the fact that we have troops engaged in a country which doesn't welcome them.
Of course they're happening a a big scale SH but, as you say, it's so difficult to get accurate figures of casualities.
I see Sky News is doing quite a bit on Afghanistan today. Must try to watch it later.
Accurate civilian casualities are difficult to find.
Then of course we have the number of maimed and injured. In years to come people will gasp and say 'I didn't know'. That's because they didn't want to know.
WfW, so many of us have protested about that for years now yet NATO continue to pour billions into Afghanistan's corrupt government's coffers. All in the name of aid.
what happened to the flail tank> I thought we were re-inventing them?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flail_tank
My point is Rosie that many people in the UK think it's only our forces and USA but it isn't. Our losses greatly exceed the other countries except for the USA but that doesn't mean the MSM should ignore the other losses.
There again, it would make the situation look worse than it's currently portrayed ... is that intentional?
Coalition Military Fatalities By Year
Year US UK Other Total
2001 12 0 0 12
2002 49 3 18 70
2003 48 0 10 58
2004 52 1 7 60
2005 99 1 31 131
2006 98 39 54 191
2007 117 42 73 232
2008 155 51 89 295
2009 317 108 96 521
2010 400 96 102 598
Total 1347 341 480 2168
The figures speak for themselves ... if this is winning, god knows what losing is.
Thank you so much for that Spartan. Very good of you to give it to me.
Now, how can we find out the figures for those seriously injured including those injured enough to lose their jobs.
I'd like to see accurate civilian figures too but they're hidden - somewhere.
Dram, I'll see what I can find out about them, if anything. Will put some feelers out but don't expect to receive any positive answers - please.
SH, I don't publish the losses of other countries or I'd be posting them every day. It's not because I'm disinterested (I have a list I update regularly from reading foreign blogs etc) but it's time.
Perhaps it's also time I posted Spartan's data.
For the period 7 October 2001 to 31 December 2005:
Centrally available records show that:
* 6 UK Military Personnel were categorised as Very Seriously Injured from all causes excluding disease
* 4 UK Military Personnel were categorised as Seriously Injured from all causes excluding disease.
For the period 1 January 2006 to 30 September 2010:
Centrally available records show that:
* 1,499 UK military and civilian personnel were admitted to UK Field Hospitals and categorised as Wounded in Action.
* 2,848 UK military and civilian personnel were admitted to UK Field Hospitals for disease or non-battle injuries.
* 218 UK personnel were categorised as Very Seriously Injured from all causes excluding disease.
* 221 UK personnel were categorised as Seriously Injured from all causes excluding disease.
* 3,885 aeromedical evacuations have taken place for UK military and civilian personnel injured or ill in Afghanistan.
All details can be found here
http://www.mod.uk/NR/rdonlyres/B4917B79-5B36-4E87-AF67-9817177975B3/0/opherrickcasualtytablesto30september2010.pdf
Thanks for that Spartan. I have some of these statistics but not all. Much appreciated.
I have noticed, since the election the MSM have stopped giving the running total in their reports?
And Rosa - moved, but not yet settled./
I've noticed that too RA. That's why I put the number in bold.
Do hope your settling problems are small ones.
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