You Will Be Remembered

Five members of HM Forces were killed in Kandahar, Afghanistan on Saturday when the Lynx helicopter, in which they were travelling, crashed.

They have been named as Captain Thomas Clarke, Army Air Corps; Flight Lieutenant Rakesh Chauhan, Royal Air Force; Warrant Officer Class 2 Spencer Faulkner, Army Air Corps; Corporal James Walters, Army Air Corps and Lance Corporal Oliver Thomas, Intelligence Corps.

Five more families and friends will suffer the unbearable loss of a loved one.  Was it worth it? Of course not.

These deaths come at a particularly poignant time for me - one in which I can truly say ‘There but for the grace of God go i’. A member of my own family returned safely from their last six month tour of Afghanistan in February.  Thankfully there will be no more tours as civilian life now awaits.  The old adage “if I knew then what I know now” is very suited to my feelings of military life today and if I’d known nearly 20 years ago how a career in the military would develop into endless tours of war zones, then I would not have offered the encouragement I did. 

My own experience of military life was positive and something I recall with fond memories, but these were formed before warmongering politicians became leaders of the western world and in the days when nobody would dream of saying to a soldier’s mother that their child was a hired killer.

All I can do is offer my condolences to those suffering intense grief and count my blessings, as I’ve done every day for many years.

R.I.P. you five professionals.  You will be remembered.

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Another Loss

It's with a heavy heart I record the death of a British soldier in Afghanistan yesterday.

He served with 14 Signal Regiment (Electronic Warfare) and had been on patrol in the area of Kakaran, north east of the provincial capital Lashkar Gah.

His death brings the number of HM Forces killed in Afghanistan since 2001 to 445.

The Royal Signals play an essential role in war and although their role has been changed by modern technology over the years, danger still lurks, as it does for every soldier on active service.

May his family and friends find his loss less devastating with the passing of time.

RIP.

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Too Heavy A Price

Eighteen hours of the past twenty four must have been hell for the families of those serving in southern Afghanistan.

Yesterday, around noon, the media reported there had been three fatalities in the region, but no further details were provided by the NATO PR machine.

As the south is mainly patrolled by British troops - and most military families know the battalions and squadrons out there - it was expected those killed would be British.  In fact they served with the Royal Highland Fusiliers, 2nd Battalion, the Royal Regiment of Scotland.

The MoD did not confirm the loss until after 5am this morning.  Can you imagine the fear which ran through families' minds from noon yesterday for 18 hours?  When such an incident happens the communication network shuts down and families in the UK are unable to contact their loved ones.  They just have to sit and wait, fervently hoping nobody knocks on their door, until a further announcement is made. Their hopelessness is palpable. I suspect many mothers whose sons are deployed in Helmand right now, had little or no sleep.  Sadly three may not sleep well for many years.

In the Mastiff thee were two crew and eight troops. Nothing has been reported about the other casualties but I suspect all were seriously injured.  Five Afghanis were also killed in the attack, while in another attack in the south of the country - a roadside bomb in the Shah Wali Kot district of Kandahar province  - killed three civilians and wounded five.

We are losers in this war.  We've lost 444 of our armed forces now and will possibly lose more as the Taliban up their strategies in the knowledge that our troops are pulling out next year.  Meantime our government will continue to send more troops.

Once the troops leave Afghanistan will return to its wretched state. Supposedly we went in an attempt to stabilise the country but that has failed. We have paid too heavy a price.

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More Death In Afghanistan

Yet another member of HM Forces is dead. 

He died yesterday, in the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham, as a result of wounds sustained whilst on duty in Lashkar Gah district of Helmand Province on Monday.

The soldier served with the 1st Battalion The Duke of Lancaster's Regiment and is the 440th member of UK service personnel to have lost his life in this horrific war.

My thought go to his next of kin who must have suffered such emotions such they heard he had been wounded. It's very possible they thought he would pull through once he arrived alive in the UK but sadly that wasn't the reality.

Another horror of war which must not be forgotten.

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Our Next War

A British soldier was killed in Afghanistan on Sunday.  Captain Walter Barrie, 41, was serving with the Royal Scots Borderers, 1st Battalion The Royal Regiment of Scotland when he was shot dead by an individual wearing an Afghan army uniform.

This is the 12th incident this year in which our servicemen have been killed by Afghan soldiers or police and brings the total number of fatalities in the war to 438.

On the Andrew Marr's Sunday Show, General Sir David Richards announced our next war. Hundreds of British troops could be deployed to Syria if the humanitarian crisis worsens he said. I translate that to read 'will' instead of 'could.

It's obvious Obama and Cameron had been discussing this for some time but the US election interrupted their plans.  Now they can continue with their plans.

I don't believe for one minute that our involvement would be limited.  Think back to - then Defence Secretary - John Reid's statement from Kabul in 2006.  We had 3,000 troops deployed there at the time.

 "We're in the south to help and protect the Afghan people to reconstruct their economy and democracy. We would be perfectly happy to leave in three years time without firing one shot."  source

 By then our military had been in Afghanistan for 5 years.  They've now been there for 12 years and the number of troops has risen to 10,000.  So has the number of deaths. Syria will be the next battleground for our armed services, which are being depleted month by month.  Although the appalling reduction in our full-time military is going ahead at considerable spped, the plans to augment the TA are still a pipe dream, because discussions with employers have not yet started and the UK government has little chance of gaining the support of businesses.  But that's a post for another time.

There is a humanitarian problem in Syria, as there is in every war.  The Syrian conflict is complex and, should we become involved, there's little doubt we would be there for some time - not months but years.

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More Fatalities

Yesterday the bodies of two soldiers killed in Afghanistan last week were returned to their families here. The circumstances of their death is still being investigated, although the initial review ruled out friendly fire.

In Afghanistan, earlier in the day, two British soldiers were killed by an Afghan wearing the uniform of the Afghan police.  The soldiers were both from the 1st Battalion The Royal Gurkha Rifles.

The MoD said the attack occurred at a checkpoint in Helmand Province's Nahr-e Saraj district.

At least 53 international troops have been killed in assualts by Afghan soldiers or police this year.  The string of insider attacks has also claimed the lives of more than 50 Afghan members of the government's security forces.

This year at least 11 of our 43 fatality injured soldiers have been killed by Afghans they served alongside.

There is talk that the UK will leave a substantial force behind in next year as our politicians think we should continue to contribute to the training of the Afghan military and police.  The proposal is appalling. No member of our military should be left behind. Let the Afghan government pay for their troop and police training.  There has been more than enough British taxpayers' money paid into its coffers during this war.

The number of our fatalities has now risen to 437 since 2001.

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Organised Retreat Of Defeated Armies

Helmand is the largest of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan.  It is the world's largest opium producing region and responsible for 75% of the world's total production.  The NATO war has not reduced the production and some reports state that it has increased in recent years.

Since the attack on Camp Bastion in the past few days the GOC of ISAF and representatives of NATO decided to restrict operations with small Afghan forces to mitigate the threat of insider attacks.  This means fewer boots on patrols and a shift in how the US-led coalition will now fight the war they are losing.

Earlier this year the US military stopped training about 1,000 members of the Afghan Local Police and US commanders have asked some troops to be 'guardian angels' who watch over their comrades in interactions with Afghan forces and even as they sleep.  US officials also recently ordered American troops to carry loaded weapons at all times, even when they are on their bases.

On Tuesday Philip Hammond, the defence secretary, attempted to clarify the UK's approach to supporting Afghan troops following General Allen's (commander of ISAF) decision and he insisted that no major strategic change had been made in policy towards Afghan allies.

He also insisted that future UK joint patrols and mentoring would continue. I watched a little of Hammond's performance on Sky's Parliament channel and it was a pathetic attempt at bluff and bluster which only emphasised his ignorance of the latest strategy.

I will not reiterate my thoughts again about this disastrous war but suggest you read this article in Global Research.  Like Iraq, it suggests the Afghan war has been fought on lies and deceptions and the planned withdrawal will be nothing more that an organised retreat of defeated armies.  As if we didn't know. History is repeating itself in this far off land once again.

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Another Casualty

A soldier from The Light Dragoons has been killed by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan.

The vehicle in which he was travelling hit an improvised explosive device in the Nahr-e Saraj district of Helmand Province.

His death follows that of Guardsman Karl Whittle, 22, who died in hospital in Birmingham on Friday.

The number of members of UK forces to have died since this futile war began in October 2001 is now 427.

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Seldom Remembered

On 14 August a soldier, from 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards, was serving in Nahr-e Saraj district of Helmand Province when he was seriously injured during enemy action.

He was flown back to the UK for treatment at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, but died from his wounds on Friday.

He is the 32nd member of the armed forces to die in Afghanistan this year and the 426th since the unwinnable war began.

Seldom remembered are those seriously or very seriously injured in this war. From January 2012 to the end of July there were 31 members of our armed forces who come into the above categories with 17 very seriously injured and 14 seriously injured.

There are of course those who are wounded, either physically or mentally, yet are not a statistic.

We can't ignore the way in which today's politicians abuse the loyalty of our armed forces.  Is it time our military had a union to represent them?  The police do.  More than enough. The excuses politicians give for not permitting our troops to be represented in this way are fatuous.

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Sunday Morning Music

Today's music is the preferred choice of Clarinda who requested this video
in memory of the the five Australian soldiers killed in Afghanistan this week. Two of the soldiers were named yesterday. Both were special forces and one was on his sixth deployment to Afghanistan.

Clarinda's email said:

'The lyrics get me every time and although written for the dead almost 100 years ago – nothing much changes.  Particularly notable during the Paralympics when so many are war ‘wounded’.

How could anyone disagree?

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A Maori Farewell

On 19 August an IED explosion took the lives of three New Zealand troops in Afghanistan.

Lance Corporal Jacinda Baker, 26, was the first New Zealand female killed in that war and her colleagues who also perished were Richard Harris, 21, and Lance Corporal Luke Tamatea, 31.  Two Kiwi troops were killed there earlier this month.

The New Zealand Defence Force released the above video of hundreds of troops performing a Maori funeral Haka at the Burnham Military Camp near Christchurch.

Haka is used throughout New Zealand by many, not only Māori, to demonstrate their collective thoughts. There is a haka for each of the Services, as well as the Defence Force. Units with the NZ Army have their own haka. This video shows the soldiers of 2/1 RNZIR Battalion performing their Unit haka, powerfully acknowledging the lives and feats of their fallen comrades as they come onto the Unit's parade ground. It is also an emotive farewell for they will leave via the waharoa (the carved entrance way) for the very last time. Source 

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The Third Death This Month

On Friday a British soldier was killed in Afghanistan.

Twenty year old Guardsman Jamie Shadrake was serving with the 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards and was killed while on sentry duty.

Three British soldiers have now been killed in Helmand this month and all were expected to return home to the UK in the next few weeks. Our armed forces death toll in this war is now 425.

David Cameron's promise of a withdrawal from Afghanistan is due to begin next month and an increase in the number of attacks against members of ISAF (the International Security and Assistance Force) has been predicted, especially in the south of the country.

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May They Rest In Peace

British troops patrol though Nad-e Ali

Yesterday, shortly after the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) reported that three US soldiers had been killed in an incident in south-west Afghanistan by 'an individual wearing Afghan uniform', a British soldier from 3rd Battalion The Rifles, died as a result of injuries sustained whilst on patrol in the Nad-e Ali district of Helmand Province.

Later in the day the MoD announced the death of another soldier.  He belonged to the 30 Armoured Engineer Squadron, 26 Engineer Regiment, Royal Engineers and was killed as a result of injuries received by enemy action while undertaking a construction task in Nad-e Ali.

Yesterday's deaths bring the total number of members of UK's armed forces to have died since operations in Afghanistan began in October 2001 to 424.

May they rest in peace.

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Afghanistan

The Ministry of Defence has named the soldier killed in Afghanistan on Wednesday.  He was Lance Corporal James Ashworth from the 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards and was only 23 years old.

Yesterday another soldier was killed.  He was from the 1st Battalion The Royal Anglian Regiment and has yet to be named.

Since 2001, when this war began, 419 UK military personnel have been killed and countless civilians.

David Cameron's policy is to keep a military presence in Afghanistan - for an unspecified number of years - to 'mentor the Afghan military'.  I wonder if he's read this.  Living and working in such an atmosphere every day for months must place considerable stress upon these soldiers.  Is it any wonder cases of PTSD are rising rapidly?

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The War Rages On

I always feel terribly sad when posting the picture of a member of the armed forces who has been killed in the line of duty, because I know the photograph was picked by the soldier prior to deployment.

Above is Captain Stephen Healey, 29, from the 1st Battalion, The Royal Welsh, who was killed on Saturday when the vehicle in which he was travelling was blown up by a bomb in Afghanistan.  He was originally from Cardiff and was commanding the Combined Force Burma reconnaissance platoon.

Capt Healey's death brings the number of British Service personnel killed in Afghanistan to 415.

No words can express my anger at this continual, unnecessary loss of life.

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How Not To Ensure The UK's Safety

Afghan police officers

Two British servicemen have been murdered by rogue Afghan policemen while they guarded a public meeting on Saturday. Two attackers are thought to be involved.  One was killed at the scene but the other escaped.

The MOD has confirmed that a soldier from 1st Battalion Welsh Guards and an airman from the Royal Air Force were serving as part of an advisory team and were providing security for a shura (meeting) near Patrol Base Attai, a joint British and Afghan compound in Helmand's Lashkar Gah district.

Their deaths are the latest in a string of attacks on international troops by Afghan security forces or insurgents disguised as police.

The murders by the Afghan police will further heighten foreboding among Western forces of an enemy within even though British defence sources attempt to play down claims of Taliban infiltration.

414 members of the UK's armed forces have now been killed in the Afghanistan war.

Westminster government leaders have made no secret of the fact that a large number of British troops will continue to be deployed in Afghanistan after 2014, when a percentage are to be brought home. Those remaining are to have a training/support role. Recently it was reported that the Foreign Office has demanded that 'significant equipment'- £1billion of military vehicles - can be passed to the Afghan National Army and Police so they can maintain security when we leave and the overall cost of equipment scheduled to be passed to the Afghans is eventually expected to reach £2 billion.

We cannot afford to make 'gifts' of this magnitude, particularly when the capability of frontline units are being reduced and specialised equipment is in desperately short supply.

When UK forces left Aden in 1967 equipment that couldn't be shipped back was packed onto an RAF runway and after the last troops had been lifted out the kit was bombed by RAF aircraft.

If we are unable to ship back our equipment, what happened in Aden in 1967 should happen in Afghanistan once our troops return home. I have no doubt equipment left behind will find its way into the hands of the Taliban one way or another.

Is that ensuring the safety of the UK?

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It's What Politicians Don't Say That Matters

The British media are obsessed with the Olympics and News International they appear to have forgotten the UK is at war with another country.

Yesterday, In Kabul (pictured) President Obama signed an agreement with President Karzai to keep a major US military presence in Afghanistan (currently about three times its original size) through the end of 2014 and to allow a significant unspecified presence beyond that date, with no end date stipulated. He stressed that no permanent US bases would be involved, but his agreement requires Afghanistan to let US troops use 'Afghan' bases.

Earlier this week Obama spoke of a transition to Afghan control but we've heard that talk for years.  We've heard it from No 10 too, but that's not surprising given that British PMs parrot instructions received from Washington.

Obama is promising to leave Afghanistan, but not yet. Except he isn't promising to ever leave at all.  The agreement is open-ended.  It says it enters into force when 'the Parties notify one another, though diplomatic channels, of the completion of their respective internal legal requirements'.

Obama, like Brown and now Cameron, said that he would withdraw troops at a steady pace and says that it will be the end of 2014, not when the last troops leave, but when a significant number of troops remain, as Afghans become 'fully responsible for the security of their country'. The troops are required in specific training roles and other miscellaneous projects.

Having read this agreement it is vague and unforgivable. David Cameron has tried - not at all successfully - to convince the British public that a only a small number of our armed services would be left in Afghanistan after 2014.  He desperately wants to assure the electorate, before the next general election, that our troops will be brought home before they go to the polls.  What he hasn't told us is that British troops may, very possibly, have a presence in Afghanistan for decades to come.

But we knew that didn't we?

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RIP Guardsman Roland

Twenty-two year old Michael Roland joined the army in 2009.

He was killed yesterday while on patrol in the Nahr-e-Sarj district of Helmand province, Afghanistan.

The father of twins was a Guardsman with the 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards.

There have been 410 British military deaths since Westminster politicians voted to go to war with Afghanistan. 410 unnecessary deaths.

RIP Guardsman Roland.

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Soldier Named

Corporal Jack Stanley (pictured) died on Saturday in the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham.

Cpl Stanley, of the Queen's Royal Hussars (The Queen's Own and Royal Irish), was wounded on 3 February, when he was on patrol in the Pupalzay Kalay area east of Lashkar Gah, Afghanistan.  He was caught on an explosion from an improvised explosive device.

His mother said" "He fought so hard to stay with us and the devastation we feel cannot be described. The world is duller without him and heaven brighter."

Another family grieves. Another totally unnecessary loss.

408 British troops have now lost their lives in this futile war.

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Insider Killings

Members of the Afghan National Army

Two British military personnel, were shot dead by Afghan security forces yesterday. Later a NATO soldier - his nationality has not yet been disclosed - was shot dead at a checkpoint by a 'rogue' policeman. A total of 407 British troops have now lost their lives in this war.

The two British men were a soldier from the Adjutant General's Corp and a Royal Marine.  They were killed at point-blank range at the British base in Lashkar Gar in Helmand province.  The Lashkar Gah base is home to most senior British commanders and Foreign Office officials in Afghanistan and mainly houses British servicemen and women, although there are also some Americans based there.

The gunman was from the eastern Nangarhar Province and had been in the Afghan National Army for four years according to Ghulam Farooq Parwani, deputy commander of the ANA.

To find an accurate account of the incident is difficult, but it would seem the troops were taken by surprise when the gunman stepped out of a truck during the morning and approached the main gate holding his M16 assault rifle.  They shouted that he could not carry the weapon into the base and he replied saying he was there to escort a Kabul delegation.  He then continued his approach and opened fire on the men, killing two and injuring a third.  Coalition troops who saw what happened then immediately shot the gunman. An American soldier was also shot dead yesterday in a similar attack by an Afghan policeman in the east of the country.

Fifteen NATO troops have been killed by their Afghan allies in the first three months of 2012 - one in six of all coalition dead and 70 members of the NATO forces have been killed in 42 insider attacks from May 2007 until the end of 2011.

Richard North says 'we [the west] lost years ago' but I say the west lost as soon as it decided to interfere in the culture and politics of Afghanistan. This war was unwinnable and therefore the obvious outcome is defeat.

Should we continue with our planned timetable for withdrawal?  No.  Dr Karl Sandstrom, an expert on Afghanistan, states the increasingly unstable situation will eventually make training impossible to maintain. He continues:

The insurgents do not need to inflict mass casualties. It would seem that when the Taleban stated that the westerners may have the watches but they had the time, their projections were far more accurate than the ones produced by think-tanks and politicians.

I agree. The difficulty now is Pakistan are no longer co-operative so the exit route will have to be through Uzbekistan. Negotiations with Tashkent are slow. Our troops are trapped and the insurgents know it.

source

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