More Dead Soldiers

For the first time in many months, today we had a cortege of seven hearses passing through the Wiltshire town of Wootton Bassett. The bodies of another seven dead soldiers were repatriated from Afghanistan and in the early evening a huge crowd of families, friends and strangers lined the main street of this town to honour more young men who died in that accursed country. We are told that the men fighting over there keep up their morale and keep themselves sane by sticking together as a band of men. They fight not for Afghanistan nor for their country but fight for each other. There is no doubting their bravery and their abilities. Nor, for that matter should we doubt the qualities of the Americans. All these soldiers have been lumbered with fighting a war of politicians making and with little prospect of achieving a successful outcome. In the last week we have lost one soldier every day and currently British losses are at three times the rate of the Americans - is it just because of poor equipment?

One of our tasks is to train Afghans to have an effective army and police force. This seems very unlikely ever to happen. The forces are corrupt and often drug addicted and President Karzai seems unlikely to end the corruption that keeps him in power. But then that is how Afghanistan works and nothing we do now or in the future is likely to change that. This country is a medieval basket case and that's how it will remain.

We should get our troops out as soon as possible.

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