Thursday, September 17, 2009

British soldiers dying as Gordon Brown tries to lie his way out of trouble.


Dear All

The Afghanistan war has been lost but like Adolf Hitler, Gordon Brown still thinks he is winning the war.

Occupation armies are doomed to failure because that is not their primary role.

It is therefore not surprising that the death and injury rate of British soldiers continues to climb.

To show how useless the situation is here is the letter of Stephen Minter to the inept part time war leader; Herr Gordon Brown.

The strategy in Afghanistan is like a kid pushing mushy peas round his plate to look like he is eating when it is just a delaying tactic.

The full letter from Stephen Minter to Gordon Brown:

Ref: The Killing of Sjt Paul McAleese, 20/08/09

Sir,

Serjeant Paul McAleese was serving with 2 Rifles and went to Afghanistan in April just two weeks after the birth of his first son. In June, following the death of a platoon commander and injuries caused to the platoon serjeant by an IED when on a foot patrol, he was transferred to a forward operating base called Wishtan, in Sangin.

Operating from this FOB on July 10, five soldiers were killed by two IEDs again while on foot patrol. I later learned from Paul that the death toll could have been higher as there were several IEDs around then which were thankfully not detonated.

Paul came home for a week’s R and R in July and I learned more about the situation in his base.

1. There are no armoured vehicles there

2. Helicopters are not widely available

3. Foot patrols are still being carried out

4. The insurgents have the same metal detectors that our troops have and use them when planting their IEDs, making them virtually undetectable to our troops.

5. Any ground cleared by our troops is left unprotected when they return to base and the insurgents just place more IEDs in the same area.

6. The IEDs are planted within metres of the base and there is no equipment available to monitor the area and not enough troops available to maintain observation posts on the ground.

Considering the number of soldiers killed from FOB Wishtan, it must be the most dangerous place in the whole of Afghanistan. I was already aware of the debacle concerning the purchase of Chinook helicopters that have been unavailable for over two years as vital equipment to operate them was not purchased.

The claims that our troops are provided with the best equipment and that we have enough helicopters is clearly untrue and support of these claims by MPs or senior officers concerned for their careers does not stand up to the facts.

On August 20, Paul and another soldier called John were killed by IEDs while on foot patrol from FOB Wishtan.

It took nearly three hours for a helicopter to become available to fly Paul to Camp Bastion and this was then provided by the US as there were no British craft available.They died because they were not provided with the right equipment or a safe system of work.They did not have dogs or suitable equipment to detect the IEDs that killed them. There were no armoured vehicles for them to travel in which may have enabled them to survive the explosions. If they were not sent out on foot they would still is alive.

I believe that Paul and John were not killed by the Taliban or the insurgents; they were killed by whoever sent them out there knowing that they did not have the equipment necessary to do it with any degree of safety. The six soldiers already killed in the same area clearly being proof that they were ill-equipped to deal with the threat.

Any killing of our troops should be because of the actions of our enemies and not by the inactions of our MPs.

Because of you, I now have a 26-year-old daughter with no husband and a five-month-old grandson with no father.Their lives and those of family and friends around them will never be the same. The fact that Paul’s death was needless and avoidable makes us extremely angry.

As the Prime Minister, you must accept responsibility for the deployment of your troops. You have a duty to ensure that they are provided with the best equipment available and the operational tactics that are used are sound and sensible. Failing to ensure this will be seen as an act of neglect and should not be allowed to go unanswered.

I plead with you to stand up to the mark, protect our troops and stop the needless killing of our sons, husbands and fathers by IEDs.

So, this letter makes it clear that “our” inept war leader who didn’t properly fund the army as Chancellor is still causing the deaths of British soldiers as PM.

He must be so proud of himself in his Whitehall bunker!

Yours sincerely

George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University

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