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Alex213
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Afghanistan not following the script
#5834359 - 07/08/06 05:06 AM (17 years, 8 months ago) |
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Desert of death takes its toll on beleaguered troops
British forced to give up hearts and minds mission to stay alive in Afghan outpost
Declan Walsh in Camp Bastion Saturday July 8, 2006 The Guardian
Locals call it the "desert of death" - a stark landscape of burned flats, furnace-like heat and choking dust storms that sprawls across Helmand province. But the wry nickname for the neighbourhood around Camp Bastion, Britain's main military camp, has started to acquire a more sinister meaning.
At dawn on Thursday a Chinook helicopter returned to base carrying a mournful cargo - the remains of Private Damien Jackson, a cheery 19-year-old paratrooper who died in a Taliban firefight hours earlier. Commanders shut down the camp's satellite internet system to prevent word of the fatality leaking out before his parents were informed.
Still, the bad news gusted across the camp as fast as the scorching desert wind. Six British deaths in three weeks - the previous fatalities just four days earlier - brought home the perilous reality of "peacekeeping", Helmand style, to many British soldiers.
"This latest one has hit the lads quite hard," said Corporal Kelly Buckley, 27. "They know it's part of their job, what they signed up for. But nothing really prepares you for when it happens."
The bloodshed also sealed the formidable reputation of Sangin, where full-blooded battles between Taliban and British forces involving rockets, mortars, machine guns and warplanes, erupt almost every day. A battle-frazzled group flew out of the riverside town on Thursday. Many were exhausted after two weeks with little sleep and nightly gun battles, according to fellow soldiers.
Plans to woo villagers with development projects have been frozen because outside the two largest towns, Lashkar Gah and Goreshk, much of the province is under Taliban control. Paratroopers deployed to four northern corners - Sangin, Kajaki, Musa Qala and Naw Zad - to break the insurgents' stranglehold have been welcomed with the rattle of gunfire. At one stage this week the Taliban simultaneously attacked three of the small bases.
But the hostility also appears to come from local villagers. Patrolling soldiers are greeted with sullen looks, spy vehicles that shadow their vehicles, and passers-by who run their fingers across their throats in a slitting motion.
Afghanistan has offered a more potent challenge than many wished. "That place is like hell on earth," said one paratrooper, speaking to fellow soldiers about to leave for Sangin. "Just expect the worst. There's no other way to describe it."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/afghanistan/story/0,,1815792,00.html
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xDuckYouSuckerx
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Re: Afghanistan not following the script [Re: Alex213]
#5837742 - 07/09/06 01:50 AM (17 years, 8 months ago) |
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Did you ever see that old SNL sketch where they had "Duh!" magazine. "War is shitty" would be a great headline for that magazine. Maybe they renamed it The Guardian.
-------------------- Unions are the bastions of the mediocre. - luvdemshrooms
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RandalFlagg
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Re: Afghanistan not following the script [Re: xDuckYouSuckerx]
#5837768 - 07/09/06 02:00 AM (17 years, 8 months ago) |
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Quote:
xDuckYouSuckerx said: Did you ever see that old SNL sketch where they had "Duh!" magazine. "War is shitty" would be a great headline for that magazine. Maybe they renamed it The Guardian.
I have a feeling that the people at the Guardian say "Duh!" a lot.
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Alex213
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Re: Afghanistan not following the script [Re: xDuckYouSuckerx]
#5837856 - 07/09/06 03:33 AM (17 years, 8 months ago) |
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Quote:
xDuckYouSuckerx said: Did you ever see that old SNL sketch where they had "Duh!" magazine. "War is shitty" would be a great headline for that magazine. Maybe they renamed it The Guardian.
Actually the Guardian supported the war on Afghanistan and Iraq. And every other war Blair has ever launched.
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Redstorm
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Re: Afghanistan not following the script [Re: Alex213]
#5838105 - 07/09/06 09:08 AM (17 years, 8 months ago) |
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I hate to sound terribly insensitive, but 6 deaths in 3 weeks is not much. I bet the same rate of troop deaths occur in Iraq caused by non-combat related injuries.
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Alex213
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Re: Afghanistan not following the script [Re: Redstorm]
#5838232 - 07/09/06 10:21 AM (17 years, 8 months ago) |
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It is when this troop deployment was covered with the line that the British troops would be "rebuilding" and that they probably wouldn't fire a shot.
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Redstorm
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Re: Afghanistan not following the script [Re: Alex213]
#5838240 - 07/09/06 10:25 AM (17 years, 8 months ago) |
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If anyone believed a line like that, they surely are fools.
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Alex213
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Re: Afghanistan not following the script [Re: Redstorm]
#5838301 - 07/09/06 10:42 AM (17 years, 8 months ago) |
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That's how it was sold. If it had been sold as "British troops sent to Afghanistan to engage in battle with Taliban" I doubt they would have got it past the british people.
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Redstorm
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Re: Afghanistan not following the script [Re: Alex213]
#5838318 - 07/09/06 10:48 AM (17 years, 8 months ago) |
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Did the British people have any say in whether or not the troops were sent? I understand it is preferable to have the backing of the citizenry, but it isn't necessary.
I think it would be idiotic to believe that soldiers were going to be sent into such an instable area and none of them would be killed. I don't know who would honestly believe that.
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Phred
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Re: Afghanistan not following the script [Re: Redstorm]
#5838890 - 07/09/06 01:43 PM (17 years, 8 months ago) |
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Quote:
I think it would be idiotic to believe that soldiers were going to be sent into such an instable area and none of them would be killed. I don't know who would honestly believe that.
Alex213 seems to be implying the British people believed that.
Phred
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