The 300th Death

When I made my previous posting I knew that I would not have to wait too long before we received news of the 300th death of a British soldier in Afghanistan. I switched on my computer this morning and there was the expected headline. Only 8 hours have elapsed. Even now I don't know what to say. The event was inevitable. As yet we do not know the man's name - his family will have to be allowed priority in grieving. We know only that he was from 40 Commando, the Royal Marines. Luckily or unluckily, he died in hospital in Birmingham and we were told that he was "injured in a blast" on 12th June. I assume that "injured in a blast" means a roadside bomb. Another nasty statistic that I found in The Observer yesterday was that our death rate in Afghanistan is about three times higher than that of the United States forces. Is this because of the continuous slaughter by roadside bombs and that we are less well equipped to deal with them?

The Prime Minister commented on this "desperately sad news." But what more can he do? He is not responsible for getting us there - although the Tories did support Blair's military adventures - and like President Obama, he is looking for some means of getting us out. Mr Cameron said that we were there because "the Afghans are not yet ready to keep their own country safe and to keep terrorists and terrorist training camps out of their country". But, of course, they never will be. Once we leave, as I said before, they will revert to medieval chaos.

The same news report that told us of this 300th death gave news of a helicopter crash on Kandahar province that killed one US soldier and three Australians; with another seven Australians seriously injured. How many more will die before the Killing Deserts of Afghanistan are finally abandoned?

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