Gordon Brown leaves our troops to die in Afghanistan
This is Joanna Birchall, walking past the coffin of her husband Major Sean Birchall after his funeral a few days ago in London. Major Sean Birchall of 1st Battalion Welsh Guards died on 19th June while on patrol near Lashkar Gah in central Helmand province, Afghanistan.
Today, a Ministry of Defence source confirmed that ministers were “re-examining” troop numbers in Helmand following the bloodiest day for UK ground troops since the start of current operations. “Troop levels are under review. They could go up, depending on events on the ground,” said a defence spokesman. It is believed that the maximum extra deployment would be 2,000.
Last month, military chiefs were dismayed to learn their requests for 2,000 more troops had been turned down because of a Treasury spending cap. I’m going to say that again – last month, the military were denied the extra manpower that they needed to keep our troops and Afghan civilians safe because the Treasury has run out of money. Why has the Treasury run out of money? The answer is very simple – Gordon Brown. His arrogance and failures have not only left this country with over one trillion pounds worth of debt (and rising), he is leaving our troops for dead in a war zone because they do not have the equipment and support they need.
There are no words to express how angry I am. There really aren’t.
Witanagemot Blogs
Last month, military chiefs were dismayed to learn their requests for 2,000 more troops had been turned down because of a Treasury spending cap.
I’m going to say that again – last month, the military were denied the extra manpower that they needed to keep our troops and Afghan civilians safe because the Treasury has run out of money.
No, it’s worse…the first sentence refers to a spending cap. We know we’ve run out of money BUT wanker Brown seems to find enough to annouce much forign/African aid, global warming aid etc…but a spending cap on security of our soldiers…
Not long ago there would be streets full of people pulling down the doors of Parliament.
I totally, totally, totally agree.
Just because it is easier to deny does not mean it should be. What does such judgement reveal about those running our country? Does Gordon need glasses?
Sadly, on my little blog, there are posters still blindly backing this discredited dictatorship. If you fancy giving me a hand, please do!
LFAT. The Revelations coming from the Daily Mail’s embedded reporter is an indication of just how the Military feel about the War and the Government. Info is passing the system which Co’s would normally try to “nudge” to provide a slightly kinder report. Gordon Brown has repeatedly denied the Army the men and materiel requred to fight the Labour Party’s War. It is worth mentioning that he was spending money like a drunken sailor on increasing the number of State dependents, while forcing the MOD to cut Battalions from the ORBAT as we were committed to a War on two fronts. There can be little doubt that initially his parsimony was intended to damage Tony Blair in their battle to control the Labour Party. It is entirely due to his actions that we were forced to leave Iraq in such a disgraceful way. He is responsible for the fact that the helicopter fleet in Afghanistan, serving 5000 troops, is only 10 Chinooks and a handful of Lynxes, when the Army need at least 6 Sqns of Apache attack helicopters and another 60 Chinooks to successfully carry out offensive action against a fanatical, well trained and equipped enemy.
The Army is repeatedly winning tactical engagements, but is unable to follow up success long term due to lack of resources. We win the firefight, are forced to withdraw, the enemy move back in, and next day we have to do it all again.
It has long been an article of faith amongst the extremist authoritarian Left that one of the obstacles to the creation of a Socialist Utopia is the existence of an Army loyal to the Crown. The Officers are all chinless wonders from the aristocracy. The other ranks are class traitors who deserve only death. One cannot but wonder how much of an effect this socialist canon has had on Brown’s actions.
“There can be little doubt that initially his parsimony was intended to damage Tony Blair in their battle to control the Labour Party.”
He can’t have been all that optimistic about his chances of succeeding him then, or he’d have realised the flaw in his ‘cunning plan’…
Dear Julia. With hindsight. one can say that long-term planning has never been Gordon’s strongest point. ( a quality he shares with Edmund Blackadder).
One of the major fallacies of the press and various other commentators, editorials and pundits had been to blame the MoD for the various equipment shortages, failings etc in Iraq and, more recently, in Afghanistan. This has always surprised me as the MoD is limited by its financial master, the Treasury. It can only do with the money it is given; from 2002 when MoD could not order equipment in advance of various parliamentary and UN votes – despite everyone knowing the way the wind was blowing – to today when, seven years later, it is still trying to manage on a ‘peacetime’ budget, procuring long-term, needed, defence equipment as well as war equipment – examine the latest defence estimates presented to the House of Commons with even the Def.Sel.Com. querying whether enough money was being asked for. Government support our troops and allowing for the defence of the nation? I’ve rarely heard a worse – and more deadly – joke.
..
Whatever the rights and wrongs of the Iraq war, we made a massive strategic mistake by accepting the need for that engagement.
We deprived the Afghan front the materials and personnel which were necessary to to take a short term victory and drive it into a long term one. The Taliban was defeated, but was allowed real time to regroup, and the Iraq war gave the Islamist cause a propaganda coup and probably heralded the massive drive in recruitment to the Taliban in Pakistan.
All these mistakes, which were warned against by senior military figures and historians, have led to the terrible situations our troops now face. They desperately need reinforcements, but where are our NATO allies. They have no backbone for the fight which must now be won.
If we leave now, Britain as a force will be deeply diminished, just as we would have been had we allowed the invasion of the Falklands to stand in 1982, we would always negotiate from a position of weakness. This conflict is not only important in terms of terrorism and security now, but in terms of influence and security going forward. We must give our troops the best chance to win and provide Britain the lasting victory she so desperately needs.
Our Troops are the muscle for the international cartel which operates the modern day opium trade. Keeping ‘Afghan civilians safe’? How are the troops to do this precisely when they are guarding the poppy fields, from the Taliban, that wants to drive the invaders our of their country (quite properly!) and destroy the poppy fields – a thing which they feel commanded to do by their god?
Do any of you imagine that Gordon Brown gives a tinkers cuss for the Squaddies and Colonels dying in the wastes of Afghanistan? The Armed Services are made up of
(a) White working class kids from the Thames, the Mersey and the Tyne , who are the object of derision for the petty bourgeois trash that represents the Labour Party
(b) ‘Ruperts’ for officers, who are representitives of all that repulses socialists – well educated, committed, willing to sacrifice, loyal.
Neither of these groups figure in the new Utopia that is being built. They are Aunt Sally mannequins for The Powers That Be to make profit from.
@Matt, the MOD deserve every kicking they get – their Treasury paymasters may be responsible for a number of things, but the MOD has a long history of screwing things up. Give them a project, it’ll take them the better part of a decade to agree which companies will work on it, the result is usually flawed then they spend ages spinning/lying about the flaws until they’re forced into fixing it.
The Bowman radio is a fine example of this.
Our troops have always been screwed over, they’re a political afterthought for all the parties, and we’re dealing with a political and procurement system that is constantly preparing to fight the last war.
It is disgusting, and it is disgraceful, but Brown is merely the latest in a line of leaders who have betrayed our troops.
Amazing, Bob Ainsworth has displayed his outright cluelessness – apparently Bob cannot differentiate between reduced risk and no risk.
Completely right, LfaT. And he has the nerve to appear at parades and services.
C’mon guys, be fair. Gordon Brown’s heart goes out to the families of soldiers who are killed. He says so every time it happens. Sometimes without even having to read it.
It is Brown’s fault. i mean it really is his. He was the chancellor who agreed to back the war but refused the money to fight it. In which he case he should have refused to back it.
Instead he did his usual verbal tricks and bring forth from capital account/ change to revenue account/ extend by 5 years not four and hey presto the military has a higher level of spending than ever before. Only it was 10p tax 22p – 20p rate income tax spending. mostly illusionary.
There are precious few transport aircraft and haven’t been for 20 years. GB has had airline crashes in 2001/03 and 08 to buy as many cheap planes as he wanted, to pick up cancelled orders or buy the fleets of from XL air and the like.
Helicopters were required at the time of the Falklands. there were not enough then. The replacement transport lynx was agreed at Christmas time last year! That was when it was agreed for contract. It still has to be built and tested. Its years away!
Yet we undertook a mountainous war and a sand war without enough helicopters.
Gordon could have bought Humvees when our Northern Ireland riot control vehicles kept getting destroyed. But no, too expensive. Better to have nothing.
8 years after the war started the right transport vehicles aren’t there. We know about the appalling Apache gunship avionics scandal that means our troops are reliant on the US forces for close air support. we knew the radios didn’t work and the problems with boots and rifles. The MOD has worked hard on the those, and it is working on making what is there better protected.Textile armour being the latest invention that might save a few lives. But the expensive armoured vehicles and air transports have not been bought.
One man is responsible and I hope a shadow of guilt passes over his heart as he reads the names of the dead this week when he thinks of the work he sent the Scottish shipbuilders way, AT THE EXPENSE of the infantry.
Letters from a Tory is right [...] This is the real human cost of Brown’s financial incompetence over the last 12 years
A bit late in the day I know but I just would like to add my feelings of hate for what Gordon Brown has NOT done and the terrible havoc he and Blair have created. It seems strange that having ’sorted’ Northern Ireland they then proceeded with Iraq AND Afganistan.
Just out of interest did anyone see the interview with Brown where he was talking about the books he has written? His dedication and sincerity were mind blowing!
I make no further comment.
I’ve heard that Gordon Brown and Bob Ainsworth intended to volunteer as drivers in Helmund, for 6 months.
Then they realised that no one, not even the troops, would stop them.
‘The Officers are all chinless wonders from the aristocracy’ – Grumpy Old Man.
I really do find that remark offensive GOM and I doubt if you could provide me with any evidence in this day and age. If you can then I will apologise but until then I will continue to think you have little knowledge of today’s military.
Otherwise I usually fall on your side of the fence.
Subrosa,
It seems you fell off the fence once too often. Read again what gom wrote, it is exactly the reverse of what you think.