[support out troops] get out of this political mire

It's not often this blog quotes The Mail:

The steep rise in casualties in Afghanistan is being matched by increasingly bitter recriminations between the Government and the British Army.

Soldiers accuse ministers of failing to give the troops on the ground the support they need. Ministers charge the Army with dangerously politicising its role.

General Sir Richard Dannatt, the Chief of the General Staff, has especially angered Labour by complaining privately to a group of Tory MPs about under-resourcing of the campaign.

Senior officers are impenitent about speaking out, because they regard the stakes as so high - the lives of their men. One told me yesterday: 'I regard the losses of the past fortnight as a wake-up call to the Government.

'If we are going to fight this war as it needs to be fought, we need a properly-resourced army.

'We also need the Prime Minister and the Cabinet to explain to the British people, as they have never convincingly tried to do, why we are in Afghanistan and what we are trying to do there.'

There is a tendency amongst patriots and pro-armed forces bloggers to see any opposition to Afghanistan as a bunch of conchy lefties whining about the brave boys and girls defending our country. While the opposition might include such people, you'd hardly lump the British Army itself under that heading would you, boys?

This blog is 100% behind our troops and the number of posts on how shoddily the armed forces have been treated shows the mindset of your humble correspondent. But I'm sure as hell not going to support a war we should never have been in, for purely political purposes which have zero to do with defending our nation, completely ill-equipped, defending peope who don't give a damn about this country and which the British Army itself is outspoken against.

You can support Gordo, Mandy and the Afghan quagmire if you like.

This blog, however, supports the Armed Forces.

Interesting American perspective here on how the government over there is planning to ban cigarette smoking for the military to make them healthier.

[By the way, I tried to rejoin the army last October and got as far as papers being prepared by recruiting but then the brass rang back and said I was too old. If I'd been a doctor they would probably have taken me. Oh well.]
.