Ducati Sporting Club UK > General > Idle Chat > Iraq

[888heaven]

After yet another wastefull day of soldiers lives in Iraq is there anybody left that still feels that it was worth even one British life,and even worse the country is in a worse state food/health/infrastructure than it was under SH.
If TB was really clever he would have saved tax payers money and just shot our soldiers outside downing street and saved all that transport costs,more people complained about sending live lambs to France to be slaugtered than they do about sending sons to Iraq just to hold hands with the Yanks.
Its not as though they know who to shoot at anymore?
What a miserable place it must be for our soldiers when everyone around them could or could not be the enemy.
As soon as the yanks get bored theyll be off to Iran or North Korea.

[domski]

Originally posted by 888heaven
After yet another wastefull day of soldiers lives in Iraq is there anybody left that still feels that it was worth even one British life

Yes, and he's called Mr Tony Bliar!

[yorkie]

It is just one of those things, for a soldier anyway.

As for T. Bliar he is sending our already stretched armed forces to the Afgahn outback to fight a drugs war of all things!

Where next? Who knows, and to be quite honest the soldiers that get sent, do it because it is their job, they signed up and they are there to support the governments policy (What ever it may be) without open question.

Yorkie.

[888heaven]

It is just one of those things, for a soldier anyway.

I dont think their Parents Wifes Girlfriends hold the same view,it was a war with no justification if it can even be called a war more like an assasination gone wrong with more than one sniper.
You can never win a war(sorry occupation) without the support of the local inhabitants.
ian

[nelly]

where next?? ......................... wherever Bush reckons he should send them.
Why??? It's a waste of life, resource and money. If he spent as much time, effort and money into sorting the homeland out we'd all be much, much better off.

[yorkie]

It is a sad time for them, however they knew as did the soldiers, that the risks were very real.

Most will spend only a little of their time on operations, with some exceptions, and it is what the train to do.

The armed forces are a professional group, and within the constraints of equipment and T Bliar being tight with defence money, they are the best in the world.

On average, per year nearly 200 solidiers lose their lives through normal in work accidents!

It comes with the territory where ever it may be!

Yorkie.

[Mr C]

How much more of a dangerous place is the World since Bush's "War on Terror" How can you win a war if you dont know/can't see/dont understand your enemy.

[Mr_S]

The world's no more or less dangerous than it was before. It's just that fear mongering makes good media, and helps Governments manipulate things to their own ends. Prevalance of always on 24/7/365 media that has to be filled with stories that grab your attention and keep it to maintain ratings which leads to revenue. Has anyone noticed how many media consultants the civil service has now....


As for Iraq, it would appear there's only one more Regiment planned to go out there in the next couple of months as part of the Basra rotation, after that, at the moment, there's no others pencilled in (usually they plan 2-3 ahead)

At the same time, US troops are being moved from Afghanistan into Iraq, and British troops are now being moved to Afghanistan.

My take on it is this

Iraq is popular in the US, very unpopular in the UK, high political risk particularly in TB's final term.

US Troops in Afghanistan are an abject failure, they will be in any Arab state, but that's because of their life skills and attitude as a nation. In fact I can't recall a single country they've been a persistent occupying force in where they have been successful.

British troops are better recieved in Afghanistan, and from a political perspective a non aggressive war on drugs along with a hearts and minds campaign is far more palatable to the UK community than the war on terror in Iraq, which we all see as GWB Jr grabbing Oil stocks. Also, since Afghan Heroin is a more "European" issue (Colombian cocaine is the US drug problem) it makes sense for it to be addressed by Europe's finest.

So, do a bit of a troop shuffle, British troops to Afghanistan, US troops to Iraq, more chance of each Gov't getting re-elected.

Our troops are stretched too thin, have substandard equipment compared to other forces, and the Gov't persists in bad business practices around Military spending. I've been out for 8 years now, and problems that were rife then are still prevalent now, and are unlikely to go away whilst it's run by politicians who've never been in an operation environment.

Having said that, all our services are percieved as the worlds finest, because the attitude is right and respect for locals is there, we no longer enter a country to annexe it into the Empire (Unlike the US, who've already introduced McDonalds etc to Iraq...).

[FiscusFish]

For interesting reading on how crap our army/navy/airforce equipment is this makes good reading http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/...437977-6516755

It's funny until you realise that we're paying for it and poor stupid blokes are relying on the weapons to save their lives... All about money in our corporations (BAe springs to mind...) pockets...

[philthy]

We were tricked as to the reasons for starting this occupation. It is not a war - the war is over - we are now occupying forces and it sickens and angers me to see our soldiers being killed ( How many more are maimed for life - hundreds ? ) Isn't it surprising that we rarely hear of American deaths? The cynic in me says that by supressing this news the government thinks we will not relate the figures to our own casualties.

If you read your history books you will see how many countries have attempted to control Arab nations by occupation. It has NEVER worked. All attempts have ended in failure.

Yorkie is correct militaraly. The operational losses have been small compared to other wars and operations, and soldiers, like other high risk occupations are meant to be aware of the risks. I just wish that they had the best equipment available for their own safety.

As to the Afghanistan drug problem, we are meant to be controlling this but if we do the job properly and destroy all the farmers ''crops'' then we will start a civil war there too.

The soldiers, as they did in Northern Ireland are doing a difficult job extremely well, but it is time for them to come home before we lose any more lives and what little international credibility we have left.

Our servicemen and women are paying the price for this governments political and personal failures. They should come home.

But then what do I know? I'm just a bloke on the street.

Phil