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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Another Tragedy In Afghanistan

                   
                   

The video shows Brigadier General Günter Katz reporting the death of yet another British soldier in Afghanistan.  

The dead soldier was a member of 28 Engineering Regiment, attached to 21 Engineer Regiment (The Black Rats), and was part of a team preparing Nato bases for handover to Afghan forces.

Six British soldiers were also wounded in the attack, which began with an argument among Afghan troops.  Their injuries are not thought to be life threatening. 

Afghan officials said the man responsible was a soldier, nicknamed Shiekh, from the east country, who often led prayers.

The killing is the latest in a string of insider attacks that threatens to undermine the transition from international forces to local troops due to be completed by the end of 2014.

3.800 British troops are scheduled to leave Afghanistan in December 2014, with the remaining 5,200 at the end of the following year.

The latest attack takes the number of UK service personnel who have lost their lives since this war began to 439.

The past year has seen a surge in so-called 'green on blue' attacks leading to the deaths of more than 60 international troops and raising questions about whether a strategy of training local forces to take on responsibility for security can be successful. These attacks will continue to escalate as troops withdraw from the country.  The taliban want to government their country and little will stop them.

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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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Bring Captain Wales Home

Yesterday the MoD announced the deaths of another three British soldiers in Afghanistan.

One soldier, from the 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards, was killed on Friday when the vehicle in which he was travelling struck an improvised explosive device in the Nahr-e Saraj of Helmand Province. The other two, from the 3rd Battalion The Yorkshire Regiment, were shot dead by a man wearing a local police uniform and were killed at a checkpoint in the south of Nahr-e Saraj yesterday.

The news of their deaths was overshadowed by reports that the Taliban claimed responsibility for yesterday's attack on the sprawling Camp Bastion in which two US Marines were killed and several other troops injured.  NATO also lost 5 aircraft in the attack.

A spokesman for the Taliban said: "We attacked that base because Prince Harry was also on it and so they can know our anger [regarding an anti-Islamic film]".

Bastion is situated in a remote desert area north west of Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand.  It is the hub for all British operations in the province and along with Leatherneck houses thousands of combat troops and Marines, including Danish and Estonian forces.

I've long been against William or Harry serving on the front line because their presence puts the lives of others at high risk.  If Captain Wales wants to play with helicopters there are plenty stations where he could indulge his passion, but he should be brought out of Afghanistan now.  Some may say he wants to 'do his job' but his birthright doesn't permit him to be a normal member of HM Forces and his desire to be on the front line is selfish.  Now he should accept his decision is augmenting the dangers for his colleagues and others and he should return to the UK.

These three deaths bring the total of our troops who have been killed since this bloody war began to 430.

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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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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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Unsolvable Religious/Cultural Differences

Another three British soldiers have been killed by an Afghan policeman whilst they did their best to pass on their skills to the Afghan forces.

Two served with the 1st Battalion Welsh Guards and one with the Royal Corps of Signals. A fourth British soldier was injured in the shooting but was not seriously hurt.

Mark Cann, spokesman for the British Forces Foundation charity, said soldiers were worried about how Afghan colleagues, particularly police, were vetted.

"It makes everyone a little more cautious," he said.

The latest deaths mean a total of ISAF personnel have been killed so far this year and of these ( since 2010) 14 were British troops.

Any notion that Afghans, in general, think that NATO troops - particularly British and American - are there to help them is nonsense.  To them we are infidels and worse - infidel invaders.

Afghans live by their religious/cultural code and any non-believer is the enemy.

We shouldn't be providing training or assistance in these circumstances because it will not make an iota of difference to the average Afghan's life.  The majority will continue to live in poverty and under the control of the Taliban.

We will never learn.  All I can hope for is that when our military is reduced to a skeleton - after the current and forthcoming sackings - that they will never again be put in front line operations, because there won't be enough manpower to be effective.

Yesterday's deaths bring the total number of British fatalities in Afghanistan to 422.

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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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Afghanistan Casualty

The Ministry of Defence announced the death of another member of our armed forces last night.

The soldier belonged to the 1st Battalion, The Royal Welsh and he died yesterday after coming under small arms fire inthe Nahr-e-Saraj area of Helmand province.

His death takes the number of British personnel killed in this unwinnable war to 416.

No further information will be provided until his family give permission.

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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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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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Should Our Military Have Their Own Hospitals?

Another British soldier, who was wounded in an explosion in southern Afghanistan last week, has died in hospital in Birmingham.

He belonged to 33 Engineer Regiment and was seriously injured by an IED on the 11 April.

His death comes less than two weeks after Corporal Jack Stanley from the Queen's Royal Hussars (The Queen's Own and Royal Irish) died at Queen Elizabeth hospital of injuries he sustained in another attack.  A total of 409 members of UK forces have died in Afghanistan since the war began in 2001.

Although the Royal Centre for Defence Medicine has won numerous awards for the work they are doing, 13 servicemen, injured in Afghanistan and Iraq, have launched compensation claims against it.  The group is claiming they received below-par treatment and in some cases were misdiagnosed.

Legal experts said there was a gap between the world-class care frontline soldiers receive on the battlefield and the aftercare they get.  There appears to be a weakness in the psychiatric care available, but that's not surprising because throughout the UK standards of psychiatric care vary widely and many people in need of help have to wait months for help.

A retired psychiatrist friend told me a few years ago that, although he had never treated a serving member of the military, if he had been required to do so he would have found it difficult because the trauma of serving on a front line is far more complex than most mental ailments. Mental illness is still a taboo in our society, even though one in four experience it at some time in their lives.

It's the UK government's shame that they refuse to provide a military hospital where medical services are provided under the same roof. Then psychiatrists and psychologists would be able to work closely and quickly to help those with problems. The excuse politicians make is that military-run hospitals can't match the specialist care provided by NHS hospitals, but that can easily be refuted by those who have experienced both systems in the past.

When the Duchess of York military hospital opened in Catterick in 1976, it was decided to make the services available to civilians as well as the military and their dependents.  It was a small hospital but quickly gained a reputation for excellence. Civilian patients were prepared to travel from all over North Yorkshire to receive treatment. Because of its size there were limits to what services were offered but the medical and nursing care was second to none.  Sadly that hospital no longer exists.

Perth Royal Infirmary is an NHS hospital. Compared with Ninewells Hospital in Dundee it is small and services have been gradually reduced over the years. Specialist care (in a few clinical areas) is available but mainly specialists visit from the larger teaching hospital twenty miles away. The lack of resident specialists does not diminish the quality of care available.

If I thought politicians would be more considered in their decisions to send our troops to war, I would not be suggesting the country should have at least one military hospital.  Few of today's politicians have the foresight to assess the hidden damage of recent wars.  Their grandchildren will see the results though.

source

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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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Homecoming

From top left: Sergeant Nigel Coupe, Corporal Jake Hartley and Private Anthony Frampton. From bottom left: Private Christopher Kershaw, Private Daniel Wade and Private Daniel Wilford

Yesterday, David Cameron, Tony Blair and Gordon had front row seats in Westminster Hall to listen to the Queen's Diamond Jubilee address.

Not one would have given the slightest thought to what was to occur later at RAF Brize Norton - one of the many horrifying results of their warmongering decisions.

The grief of families and friends was all too evident when the cortege passed the site of the new memorial garden sited on the edge of Carterton.

May the five members of 3rd Battalion, the Yorkshire Regiment and Sgt Coupe, who belonged to 1 Battalion, The Duke of Lancaster's Regiment and was on secondment to 3 Battalion, rest in peace.

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