Criticism of Afghan War Is on the Rise in Britain

[laststeamtrain]

Source: NYT

July 12, 2009
Criticism of Afghan War Is on the Rise in Britain
By JOHN F. BURNS

LONDON — Just as President Obama’s plan to nearly double American troop strength in Afghanistan gets into high gear, Britain’s involvement in the war has come under the fiercest criticism yet at home as a result of a steep increase in British casualties, including the deaths of 15 soldiers in the past 10 days.

The latest losses are the heaviest British forces have suffered in any comparable period since the 1982 Falklands war. With the Defense Ministry’s announcement of eight soldiers’ deaths on Friday, Britain’s toll in Afghanistan is now 184 killed, five more than its total losses in Iraq, where Britain’s combat commitment ended this spring.

The deaths have generated grim images that have led the nightly television news, of slate-gray transport aircraft carrying coffins landing at a military air base in Wiltshire and being driven slowly in hearses past crowds lining the high street in Wootton Bassett, a nearby town. When five coffins passed down the street on Friday, on their way to a mortuary in Oxford, women wailed.

Britain’s casualties are far lower than those suffered by American forces, who have lost 732 troops in Afghanistan and 4,322 in Iraq, according to icasualties.org, a Web site that monitors the military losses in both wars. But with Britain’s far smaller population and troop deployments, the latest deaths — from a force of 9,000 that makes Britain’s the second-largest troop presence in Afghanistan after the United States’ — have been as much of a shock here as the heavy American troop losses in Iraq at the height of that conflict were in the United States.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/12/world/europe/12britain.html

[Flaneur]

1. They're watching the bodies come home.

I watch BBC News regularly on PBS. There's been a lot of reporting about it lately.

[tekisui]

2. More UK have died in Afghanistan than in Iraq, now.

[Solly Mack]

3. K&R

[ProudDad]

4. War is a Racket

WAR is a racket. It always has been.

It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives.

A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of the people. Only a small "inside" group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few, at the expense of the very many. Out of war a few people make huge fortunes.

http://lexrex.com/enlightened/articles/warisaracket.htm

[DemReadingDU]

5. exactly, n/t

[dipsydoodle]

6. There is always a respectful high turnout at Wootton Bassett

Our overall issue is not with the troops themselves who deserve support..........its with our fucking government for getting them imto this mess.

Aside from other issues the chances of "New Labour" getting back in next June is SFA.

[Swede]

7. Canada has had 124 killed in Afghanistan,and has a tiny comparable population.

So far the opposition has been low key,but it is simmering.

[BunkerHill24]

8. Thanks for mentioning the number of Canadian troops who died in Afghanistan

Canada has so far sacrificed 1.3% of its forces deployed to Afghanistan. Western forces should leave Afghanistan period. I can't stand bullshit statements that we are there to help the Afghanis. We are not in Afghanistan to help the Afghans....less than 5% of our spending goes to aid and the rest is spent on bombing the civilians. The sooner we leave the better.

[Mari333]

9. God, I hope they pull their troops out

set the tone. and lets get the hell out of there.