Comment at end
11th July, 2009
IN THE FOGGY HAZE OF POLITICAL ‘LEADERSHIP’ FROM THE TOP -
THE MILITARY & FAMILIES EXPLAIN
The news from Afghanistan is not good. BBC report – Eight troops die in 24 hours. But that is only part of the story.
The press, including the BBC news last night, EMBELLISHED POINTEDLY WITH PICTURES OF ALL 184 DEAD, made their positions clear: this was horrendous news. And yet, and I know this will be uncomfortable for some, and it in no way seeks to minimise the personal nature of recent losses, in WAR these are NOT actually horrendous losses. To see earlier war losses on this page click here.
And we ARE at war.
FAMILIES UNITE IN GRIEF AND PRIDE
John Humphrys on the Today programme this morning (listen here for 7 days) spoke to Trevor & Joan Ford whose 18 year-old son died in Afghanistan. This sort of interview of parents with THIS approach is still unusual in the press and on broadcasting outlets. For that Today should be congratulated. I believe MOST soldiers and their families are not part of the anti-war movement, despite this press-spread misconception over much of the last eight years. A few of the Fords’ thoughts:
Their son said that if he was killed in action - “the only thing is – give me a flag”. 
Mrs Ford says she is angry because as a nation the people say – “bring them home. But we are fighting a bully – bin-Laden who hides away in a cave. If if we pull out now, that bully’s won. People need to give not just material backing but spiritual backing . We need to say to these lads – ‘you’re doing a good job.’ If we move out it’ll only get worse.”
Asked by Humphrys if the troops get enough backing, she responded - “they get the political backing – but not enough resources.” She pointed to “the lack of EMCs” – a jamming device which warns of IEDs (improvised explosive devices) at roadsides. She remarked – “What’s Gordon Brown doing? Just counting his own money? All the lads are doing the job they believe in.”
And in case you think the Fords are unusual, read this: “My son died for a worthy campaign.”
THE MILITARY
Also on Today, Colonel Richardson says that Operation Panther’s Claw has been running for two weeks and that the Taleban are losing at every turn. The purpose of the operation is to provide security for the Afghan people in what has been a Taleban stronghold. We need to take grounds, hold it, and work with Afghan security forces in order that they can maintain that grip. We have a plan in place.”
Ian Pannell, a BBC correspondent embedded with the British troops, says it is slow going. Above all, Pannell says, it has been hidden bombs responsible for most casualties. Ninety IEDs have been uncovered by the British and the Danes in the last few days. See Pannell’s report here.
The Chief of Defence Staff Air Chief Marshall Sir Jock Stirrup said that the strategy of bringing greater security to Helmand province is “… tough going … because the Taleban have rightly identified Helmand as their vital ground. If they lose there they lose everywhere, but they ARE losing and our commanders on the ground are very clear of that. But it’s going to take time and alas it does involve casualties.”
BROWN’S RESPONSIBILITY
If anything the intervention of the military and soldiers’ families epitomises the lack of political leadership in this perhaps the most important war we have been engaged in since WW2. Brown is leaving it to THEM to make the case for this war. And this in a conflict whose legitimacy is NOT disputed. In a conflict where leadership from the TOP is the least we can expect.
I am full of admiration and heartened to read the forthright and courageous position taken by military leaders, past and present. But we need to hear more MUCH more of the same from our present prime minister. This conflict, especially if it proves successful in the long run, is likely to go down as one of THIS country’s greatest efforts. If Brown did not mean to continue to support, explain and persuade the public on the conflicts engaged in by his government (under the previous courageous and principled prime minister) he should have withdrawn our troops immediately. Or, clearly MY preference, he should never have battled for his present job so relentlessly. Courage and leadership have NOT been evident in Gordon Brown.
There is NO excuse for little more than the occasional statement from the prime minister – as yesterday. I seldom agree with Nick Clegg or the Liberal Democrats on ANYTHING these days, particularly on his and his party’s approach to Iraq, or on his call to rethink the whole Afghanistan involvement, but here he is right:
Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg said Mr Brown should “stop pretending that this is someone else’s conflict”.
And … amid growing questions over UK strategy, Mr Clegg said casualties were an inevitable fact of war but the government had to show the sacrifices of troops “have not been in vain”.
He told the BBC that, “by all accounts”, Gordon Brown made a “deliberate decision” not to send more troops because he was “worried by the domestic political reaction”.
Watch Clegg’s interview here.
This, Mr Brown, is NOT another ‘Tony’s war’, whose pieces you have been left like an innocent bystander to pick up. YOU, Mr Brown financed it, sufficiently or not. YOU, Mr Brown, sat in on ALL the decisions made.
The Defence Secretary Bob Ainsworth and the Foreign Secretary David Miliband are making the government’s case reasonably well, to be fair. But it is the leadership from the top that counts. Right now it is clear that the “don’t mention the war” approach is the one preferred by Brown. Questions of the supply of helicopters is one of the main issues, especially since they have been promised repeatedly. Brown, above all, even above Blair, is responsible for this. Over the last eight years it was Brown who authorised (or not) the funding of this conflict.
David Miliband, Foreign Secretary told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme troops were there to “ensure that Afghanistan cannot again become an incubator for terrorism and a launching pad for attacks on us. This is about the future of Britain because we know that the borderlands of Afghanistan and Pakistan have been used to launch terrible attacks, not just on the US but on Britain as well. “
Last week as we reeled from the news of the deaths of the most senior member of the military yet in Helmand province - Lieutenant Colonel Rupert Thorneloe – and that of Trooper Joshua Hammond – the military defended the armoured Viking track vehicles.
Former army officers defended the decision to deploy Viking vehicles to southern Afghanistan as the Ministry of Defence began investigating the circumstances surrounding the deaths of a senior commander and a soldier.
The Viking vehicle, currently in use on operations in Afghanistan Photograph: Andrew Linnett/MoD/PA
The Viking cross-country vehicles are due to be replaced in Afghanistan by more than 100 new, larger and more heavily armoured tracked vehicles to be known as Warthogs, while a further 100 Jackal all-terrain vehicles will also be purchased.
As attention focused on the Vikings, former officers defended their use and suggested that military planners have been surprised by the size of the bombs and mines the Taleban now have in their arsenal.
“You have to remember that Vikings were deployed to fill a very specific function,” said Amyas Godfrey, a former infantry officer and fellow of the Royal United Services Institute thinktank, referring to the bridges and canals of the “green zone” along the Helmand river.
The Viking is a tracked vehicle, unlike the heavier Mastiff armoured troop carrier. “You are sacrificing mobility for protection but mobility is itself a form of protection”, said Godfrey.
RELATED
Afghanistan – The Taleban and the opium issue in Helmand
DEATHS IN EARLIER WARS
How many British died in the four years, 1914-18 of WW1?
Military deaths – 885,138; Civilian deaths – 109,000. Total – just short of ONE million, that was 2.19% of the population. (source.)
And WW2? In the six years between 1939 and 1945?
Military deaths – 382,700; Civilian deaths – 67,100; Total – 449,800, or 0.94% of population. (source.)
Korea, 1950 – 1953: The Korean War was the military test of the United Nations and also the last martial adventure of the old Commonwealth. The American Department of Defence acknowledges that almost 40,000 of its servicemen died, either in battle or of other causes. British casualties were 1,078 killed in action, 2,674 wounded and 1,060 missing or taken prisoner.
Puts 184 into perspective, doesn’t it?
We can be proud of our troops AND proud of the initial decision to become involved. History will show.
Tags: 179 184 dead Iraq Afghanistan, 24 hours 8 dead soldiers, 8 soldiers die in Afghanistan, BBC report, Bob Ainsworth, courage and leadership, David Miliband, Gordon Brown's leadership war in Afghanistan, military explain Afghanistan, numbers of dead in wars, Sir Jock Stirrup, Trevor June Ford
July 11, 2009 at 5:15 pm |
to give this another perspective 279 soldiers died in falklands in 1982 in 3 months of war.
July 11, 2009 at 7:05 pm
Good point, Margaret.
July 11, 2009 at 7:44 pm |
In Butlin’s once I was talking to a woman whose son was in Afghanistan at the time and some of those there said he was traitor and so on being there. She turned on them and didn’t half tell them not to be so stupid and if it wasn’t for young men like these she wouldn’t have been able to say what she did. The woman in question was a german who married a british man after ww2 and had kids born in the UK. So if anyone knew and understood the necessary fight for freedom she did, not the twits against her.
July 11, 2009 at 11:08 pm
I knew an elderly German man, deceased now, who was captured here when he was shot down as a German fighter pilot during WW2. After the war ended he was released and married a British girl. They had a family and continued to live here until the end of his life. Well, his family still do. He appreciated the British army and this country for its civilised behaviour towards prisoners. He said he’d have been killed by the Nazis if he’d been a captured British pilot.
He always praised this country for its tolerance and freedoms, and never returned to Germany.