A tragedy of errors

[Tsiyu]

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/focus/story/0,6903,1681711,00.html

A tragedy of errors

Sunday January 8, 2006
The Observer

*snip*

Using documents and internal emails obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, unpublished witness transcripts from a 4,000-page inquiry report and internal army briefings, an Observer investigation can reveal for the first time serious allegations which are at odds with official accounts of the episode. They shine fresh light on an incident that still casts a pall over Britain's involvement in Iraq more than 30 months on.

Some details have already come out: the Red Caps were left in the hostile southern town of Majar Kabir with just 50 rounds of ammunition each - a third of what they should have received - and they were using antiquated, unreliable radios which were too bulky to carry.

*snip*

In the weeks before their deaths, the six had repeatedly expressed fears they could not protect themselves if there was trouble. Reg Keys recalls several phone calls from his son then. Typically ebullient about his career, Reg remembers his son as 'uncharacteristically disturbed' about his vulnerability. Testimonies to the inquiry reveal that colleagues were equally flabbergasted. 'We all laughed and then said, well what's happening?'

*snip*

Inside, the four surviving soldiers tried to stem Aston's bleeding as they waited in the gloom, unsure of their fate. Lance Corporal Ben Hyde, 23, must have wondered how his childhood dream of becoming a military policeman had come to this. Corporal Paul Long, 24, like Aston, perhaps pondered whether he would ever see his young family again. Thomas Keys probably dreamt of the family home in Wales and its view of the fields where the rowans now grow



Looks like they aren't taking care of their own any better than the US