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Afghanistan
UK: Armed Forces too weak to defeat the Taliban
2011-07-17
A devastating report into the Afghanistan war has concluded that the British task force sent into Helmand in 2006 was ill-equipped, under-resourced and too weak to defeat the Taliban.

In Operations in Afghanistan -- which is deeply critical of both senior commanders and government ministers -- the Defence Select Committee states that the Helmand mission was undermined by bad planning and poor intelligence, and the task force was capped at 3,150 troops for financial rather than operational reasons.

Much of the blame for the failings is levelled at senior officers for claiming that field commanders were content with the support they were receiving, when the reverse was true.

The report reveals that the high levels of British casualties was not predicted. Since 2006 more than 370 British troops have been killed and almost 2,000 wounded
Posted by:tipper

#5  UK DEFENCE SELECT COMMITTEE

versus

* GUARDIAN.UK > ARMY TO SHRINK TO SMALLEST SIZE SINCE THE BOER WAR WHILE RESERVISTS' ROLE BOLSTERED [ + $$$ funding for Military Equipment]. UK Army to shrink to 84,000 personnel from 100,000 after 2014 when the US-NATO Afghan withdrawal is slated for completion.

* PEOPLE'S DAILY FORUMS > OBAMA: FISCAL COMMISSION CUT DEFENSE TOO DEEPLY.

[BREAKER MORANT, + YOUNG WINSTON [Churchill = Boer War, run for Parliament] early 1970's movie here].
Posted by: JosephMendiola   2011-07-18 00:04  

#4  Germans down. Americans in.
Posted by: Eohippus Phater7165   2011-07-17 14:57  

#3  ...One of the worst things about the coming crunch is that it will almost certainly mean a retreat from Europe (as opposed to NATO) we'll still be in the treaty, but the troops and planes will have to come home, we just wont be able to afford them. That will be when the full extent of NATO's military collapse will become evident. We'll also learn why it was once said that NATO was designed to keep the Germans in and the Russians out.

Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski   2011-07-17 10:48  

#2  And the ensuing collapse will be precipitous and dangerous, I fear.
Posted by: lotp   2011-07-17 10:06  

#1  ...force sent into Helmand in 2006 was ill-equipped, under-resourced and too weak to defeat the Taliban.

Like the rest of NATO. American military welfare backed by a lack of political resolve to tell the dependents to get on with their own defense for decades has simply mirrored the same process of the American social welfare system. Dependents in both cases exercised their own free will to stay in that condition. Well, the money is now running out.
Posted by: Procopius2k   2011-07-17 09:10  

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