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2007-08-19 Britain

Shock toll of British injured in Afghan war

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Posted by lotp 2007-08-19 00:00|| || Front Page|| [3 views ] Top
File under: Taliban

#1 Only adding to the shame and sorrow of what's happening to the UK military - not a question of courageous and able practitioners, but a rot in their home country's understanding of its responsibilities and the way the world works. The US is not immune to these, of course. Don't want any of my discouraging words to be construed as disrespect for the British military. The political class and electorate that fails to support them, that's another story.

Posted by Verlaine 2007-08-19 02:02|| 2007-08-19 02:02|| Front Page Top

#2 Will the ones who are serious about real soldiering join the U.S. Armed Forces? Or perhaps the Polish Army?

Posted by trailing wife 2007-08-19 07:31|| 2007-08-19 07:31|| Front Page Top

#3 I'm remember a Willie & Joe cartoon caption.

I already got a Purple Heart, gimme an asprin.

Posted by Thomas Woof 2007-08-19 08:06|| 2007-08-19 08:06|| Front Page Top

#4 Shock toll of British injured in Afghan war

It's nothing compared to the First Anglo-Afghan War.
On January 1, 1842 following some unusual thinking by Elphinstone an agreement was reached that provided for the safe exodus of the British garrison and its dependents from Afghanistan. Five days later, the retreat began, The departing British contingent numbered around 14â16,000, of about 4,500 military personnel, and over 10,000 civilian camp followers; the military force consisted mostly of Indian units and one British battalion, the 44th.

As they struggled through the snowbound passes, the British were attacked by Ghilzai warriors.The evacuees were harassed down the 30 miles of treacherous gorges and passes lying along the Kabul River between Kabul and Gandomak. and massacred at the Gandamak pass before reaching the besieged garrison at Jalalabad. The force had been reduced to fewer than forty men by a retreat from Kabul that had become, toward the end, a running battle through two feet of snow. The ground was frozen and the men had no shelter and little food for weeks. Only a dozen of the men had working muskets, the officers their pistols and a few unbroken swords. The only Briton known to have survived was Dr. William Brydon.

Lady Butler's famous painting of Dr William Brydon, reportedly the sole survivor, gasping his way to the British outpost in Jalalabad, helped make Afghanistan's reputation as a graveyard for foreign armies and became one of the great epics of Empire.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Afghan_War

Posted by Procopius2k 2007-08-19 09:18|| 2007-08-19 09:18|| Front Page Top

#5 Al-Guardian - I might have known. Just another BS-filled piece of enemy propaganda from Britain's internal enemies masquerading as "news". Look, dipwad, soldiers don't go "looking" for combat, and it's not the only thing that keeps them serving. Obviously the closest the "reporter" has ever come to a military unit is watching the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace. The idiot's own words contradict what he writes. The officer that refused to leave his men, the soldiers that have been "nicked" but not seriously injured continuing to fight, etc., shows a military with high morale and cameraderie - something this dipwad wouldn't understand in a thousand years. The British military may not be as well-equipped and well-trained as some of the US troops (mostly special operations types), but they punch well above their weight, and deserve the respect of those at home. Sadly, it doesn't seem as if the British "elite" feel obligated to point that out.

Posted by Old Patriot">Old Patriot 2007-08-19 16:53|| http://oldpatriot.blogspot.com/]">[http://oldpatriot.blogspot.com/] 2007-08-19 16:53|| Front Page Top

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