An Old Soldier has a word to say

Old men forget; yet all shall be forgot,
But he'll remember, with advantages,
What feats he did that day.

Only yesterday Lord Patel was pondering the fate of the CGS and the Ex Ex CGS General (Now Lord) Guthrie from his dug out Dunsoldiering somewhere in the Home Countis pops up on the front page of the Daily Telegraph today ...

" We are in two very serious insurgencies (presumably Iraq and Afghanistan rather than the one in the House of Commons trying to unseat the Dear Leader) and although it is not a general war (?) we need to face facts that things are very serious ... we are just muddling through. It is reprehensible that our politicians are hiding behind the generals."

To which here at Patel towers we add our hearty and lengthy applause. However we might point out to the noble, determined and patriotic Lord that this mess has been foretold in these pages ..

Sunday, May 22 2005

"Official" Terrorist lights fires of resistance in Afghanistan

Gulbuddin Hekmatyar leads the Mujahideen faction, of fundamentalist Sunni Muslim Pashtuns, the Hezb-e-Islami, which was one of the groups that ended the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.

Diplomatic sources in Kabul Sources in Kabul see a strong spring offensive that the Taliban fighters have launched, with a much wider and popular a wider political movement against the US.

UK / NATO military observers were seen in the region last week considering a call from the White House (Condi / Rummy et. al. as the ordure hits the aircon)to plunge UK troops into this bloody cauldron.

Watch this space for an announcement about troop movements from the Scotsman John Reid AKA Minister of Defence… augmenting NATO forces (now approx 500) …beefing up the response…sharing the burden…spreading the load … part of a widening response in the War on Terror… blah blah ... pulling US chestnuts out of the fire - re-run history reel .. Terrorist aided by US bites the hand that feeds ... Osama ? Hekmatyar ?

Get yer placards out. ..... read on

Friday, January 27 2006
Reid sends ill equipped troops to certain deaths in S Afghanistan


Defence Secretary "Dr" John Reid met some of the troops due to die (We expect to take casualties)in Afghanistan. In a nationwide 2 bases *Salisbury Plain , Dittingham Norfolk, and Otterburn) exercise 3 Para are part of 3000 3,300 army personnel are due to go to the lawless southern region of the country.

They will help provide a "stable environment for reconstruction and help the government gain control of the more troubled areas" it says on this press release here. ..... read on

Turning to more recent events / deaths in theatre

Naturally much concern is raised over the downed Nimrod, an anacient spatchcocked AIWACS that is past it's fly by date and is being used as a half cock telephone exchange in the sky and large noisy Aerial Reconnaissance vehicle.

Why no Unmanned Aerial reconnaissance ? Well we have got some but , well, they don't seem to work, we haven't got the trained staff to operate them .. and .. er .. well the Israelis have fleets of them and it didn't seem to do them much good in the Lebanon.

Too few helicopters,lack of spares, overworked maintenance, necessitating too many overland supply chains which are highly vulnerable in lightly armoured Land Rovers and open top Jeeps allows the insurgents to wreak havoc, hit troop morale and cause a growing chorus for troop withdrawal from families.

One cannot find fault with my Lord Guthries views ... can he provide an answers ? Of course the new CGS points to the disparity in military expenditure with say Social Services.... yes but what do we do on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan .. NOW ?

Old men forget indeed ...

"But we in it shall be remembered-
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition;
And gentlemen in England now-a-bed
Shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day

Tell that to the lads in Helmand.