“The Head Of The British Army Warned Of Strategic Failure In Afghanistan Today As The 16th Soldier Died In A Month”
The head of the Army warned of strategic failure in Afghanistan today as it was announced that another British soldier had died in Helmand province.
General Sir Richard Danatt, who has been accused of playing politics over the issue of equipment, demanded more troops and greater investment as part of a shopping list of desires.
His plea was broadcast minutes before the Ministry of Defence said that a soldier from 2nd Battalion The Rifles was killed during a foot patrol in Helmand yesterday. Sixteen British soldiers have been killed this month.
Asked about reports that the Army had requested an additional 2,000 troops for Afghanistan, General Dannatt replied, “That figure in the public domain has never officially been put there.”
Gordon Brown has insisted that troops in Afghanistan are “properly equipped” and promised: “We will do whatever is necessary and what is right to equip our Armed Forces.”
But today, the head of the Army insisted that greater investment was needed, and even more important that ramping up the number of British soldiers. “There will be a shopping list that I will bring back,” he said. “But it won’t be so much people oriented.”
Government practice is traditionally for additional funding at the time of war to come from the Treasury reserves, but he said that if the public purse no longer allowed that then the Ministry of Defence would have to make the uncomfortable decision to reallocate its budget. “This has got to be done and got to be funded,” he said.
“If this is really important and the national finances are in such dire straits that we are not going to get more from the Treasury, then the Ministry of Defence gets £34 billion or so a year which we choose to spend on a range of programmes.
“There is then a strong case to say if this is so important and there is not going to be additional money from the Treasury, then we will have to re-order - yet again - some of our internal priorities.
“And that latter point will not be welcome at the Ministry of Defence, but it’s the right thing to do - shifting between the maritime, the air, the land environment, shifting between other areas of spending. We just may have to do it.”
General Dannatt claimed that to continue with the present level of funding would jeopardise the mission and that could not be allowed to happen. He said it would damage Nato, perhaps terminally, dent the special relationship with America and hand a huge PR victory to al-Qaeda and Islamist extremists.
“We need to flip a coin and see what’s on the other side,” he said. “The cost of failure here is just unthinkable,”
Showing no sign of bending to the Government’s pressure, General Dannatt responded this morning by saying: “If I have crossed the line then so be it.”
Dr Liam Fox claimed that a Conservative government would be more responsive to the Army’s requests.
“If we had a direct request from the head of the Armed Forces that they needed something specific to maximise the chance of success of the mission and minimise the risk to our Armed Forces, of course we would have to say yes to that,” he told the BBC.
“And what I find amazing is that if the Prime Minister was asked for extra troops by the Chief of the Defence Staff, as it’s rumoured has happened, why we are not getting them.”
General Danatt said: “Quite rightly if we carry on with the kind of casualty numbers we saw last week the people of our own country might say hold on this is not a price worth paying.”
“We do need more troops, we need more boots on the ground,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
General Dannatt claimed that more soldiers were required to reduce the impact of the improvised explosive devices, which have caused many of the British injuries including the soldier killed yesterday.
The general, who retires on August 28, said that it was vital to at least retain the number of British troops in Afghanistan at 9,000. He said that to reduce it to 8,300, as is currently planned after the Afghan elections, “would be quite wrong”.
“There may well be a case for what I would call a short term uplift, let’s not use the surge word that has sort of been worked to extinction in Iraq,” he said
The increasingly outspoken calls from General Dannatt led to senior Government officials questioning his behaviour this week. One junior minister accused him of “playing politics” and said: “This is a very difficult time and he should know better.”
Ministers fear that General Dannatt will launch an all-out attack on government policy when he retires as head of the Army next month.
General Dannatt suggested that as a temporary measure for 12-18 months, there may be a case for an increase in British troops while they wait for the Afghan National Army to be strong enough to take over.
“We don’t mind who’s feet are in the boots,” he said, although with other European countries unwilling to commit more troops to conflict zones and the training of local soldiers progressing slowly, additional British or American men would appear to be the only options.
 |
|
I read an aricle on Debka.com recently that Taliban are focusing on British troops instead of American ans a easier targeet, which then requires Amer. troops to come to their aid, thereby disrupting US troop missions. From the Taliban , a good divide and conquer strategy that appears to be working for them. Isn’t there a good military strategy to counter this?
Yeah, redeploy British troops and use them as ambush-bait to lure the Taliban in to bad positions. Then let the US troops mop-up.
“General Sir Richard Danatt, who has been accused of playing politics over the issue of equipment, demanded more troops and greater investment as part of a shopping list of desires.”
More proof that the British Empire is sabotaging our troops and are responsible for their deaths.
what british empire???? are do you mean the useless fat scottish bastard we have as a prime minister,the same one eyed miserable scottish shitbag who as chancellor of the exchequer screwed the budget for military spending for is own pet projects,the same scottish bastard who as a member of the labour party hates the military,as all labour politicians do.british empire?? the same british empire??? that went to iraq.
The British Empire is ran by the people who own the banks, who in turn own our politicians here and across the pond. War is a great money maker for these bankers, and they always finance both sides of the conflict. They don’t care that people are getting killed, they care about how much money they can make.
There British are well known for doing this throughout history.
I am in no way saying that the good British citizens are involved in this, as we good American citizens are not involved. Just the Elites are running this criminal racket.
Remember, governments go to war, citizens do not. They just use us to fight their battles for them.
[[the British Empire]]
Scoot has apparently been missing for 70 years or so.
Incidently, the British have been doing a fucking great job in A’stan and were critical to the win in Iraq.
Much like the Canadians Brits are top notch jihadi killers (just ignore the cock eating lefties).
True enough…It’s been said that the rank and file brit infantry are the finest in the world. It’s their shit bag fag politicos that sell them down the river just like here in the US. Hell look at our chiefs of staffs…a bunch of leftie, hand picked, no balls glasses wearing, accountant types…goldman sachs in cognito. Fuck’em…wheres Patton, Lemay, and Swarscoff when you need them ?
How dare you call me a cock eating lefty, you piece of shit. I’m as conservative as the rest of you all here, but I don’t follow the straight Republican line on all things, and think that the Republicans are as wholly as the lefties think they are. I choose what I want to support, and who I support. I don’t get caught up with the herd of any fucking party.
Here, read my fucking comment once again, and make sure you see what the fuck I am saying about the people of the 2 countries, and not the governments:
“I am in no way saying that the good British citizens are involved in this, as we good American citizens are not involved. Just the Elites are running this criminal racket.”
Open your fucking mind once in a while.
[[Remember, governments go to war, citizens do not. They just use us to fight their battles for them.]]
Riiiight. The Americans in Iraq and A’stan avenging the deaths of their fellow citizens on 9/11 are just poor, ignorant, brainwashed pawns of the man.
Where the hell did I say that our soldiers are like that?
Don’t you give a shit that our governments send in the troops with guidelines of what they can or can’t do? That kind of politics gets our soldiers killed for no good reason. The fucking politicians never let our forces go in and kick the living shit out of our enemies, and that the politicians put so many constraints on our soldiers that they just guarantee that our good guys end up getting killed.
Don’t fucking put those types of words into my mouth, when I didn’t even fucking hint at that, deathstar.
My wife and I lost a great friend who was the pilot of flight 175 that hit the south tower (his name was Vic Saracini), so don’t give me any shit that I don’t fucking care about what happened on 9/11.
Before you reply to me with more of your vile trash, look at my postings on this thread, and I dare you to call me a fucking cock eating lefty again:
http://patdollard.com/2009/07/translation-this-is-not-about-democracy-this-is-about-dictatorship/#comments