Afghanistan The Lion's Last Roar Episode 2
Episode Two is on: 1) BBC http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode...roar-episode-2
2) YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z79oUhIcmiM
For those without time to watch, this is the BBC News written summary:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-29714738
Apologies for the delay in posting the links.
Ministers 'didn't know Tornado from torpedo' over Afghan strategy
The former diplomat and at one time the British 'special rep' to Afghanistan-Pakistan, Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles, has added a few pithy phrases on the political-military relationshipat a session of the House of Commons DEfence Select Committee:
Quote:
The lack of military knowledge among politicians meant they found the Armed Forces’ plans and jargon-filled briefings incomprehensible and could not question their strategy.
His actual words were: There were times in Afghanistan that I felt both in the Ministry of Defence and across Whitehall civil servants civilian advisers to ministers and their political masters did not show the moral courage, the intellectual courage they needed sometimes to challenge advice from the Armed Forces. At times and in places one saw military advice to ministers which was driven by a military view of the situation which was not necessarily the same as what the wider national interest might or might not be.
Link:http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...-strategy.html
Operation Herrick Campaign Study
The official UK Operation Herrick Campaign Study, published March 2015, is now in the public domain. Not an easy read if only from the size, 614 pgs:https://www.gov.uk/government/upload...0107115638.pdf
Published by the Directorate Land Warfare Lessons Exploitation Centre. The UK government marking 'Official Sensitive' has been crossed out; just why they didn't do a cleaner version eludes commonsense IMHO. Spotted four pgs removed too. It looks like a photocopy too.
Maybe not suitable for publication before the May 2015 General Election?
One Tweet summed it up too well:
Quote:
The document that will launch a thousand headlines in the next few weeks
Musa Qala: an Afghan "Rorke's Drift"
Thanks to a "lurker" for this Daily Mail story, about a small detachment of Paras and the Royal Irish, in 2006 holding a compound @ Musa Qala, as the newly arrived UK presence moved - at local and GIRoA insistence - to "platoon houses" to "show the flag".
Their story has not been officially recognised, but C4 TV has assembled a documentary, which will be broadcast on August 16th. Perhaps it will be available beyond the UK afterwards.
Link:http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...ift-Paras.html
The story starts with:
Quote:
Outgunned, outmaneuvered, hopelessly outnumbered and besieged in the Afghan desert, a small band of British soldiers chose to save a final bullet for themselves rather than fall into Taliban hands.
Quote:
For nearly two months, the 88 men of Easy Company – a mix of Paratroopers and the Royal Irish – had faced the overwhelming force and firepower of up to 500 Taliban determined to over-run the remote Helmand outpost of Musa Qala.
And their near miraculous survival has been described as a latter day Rorke’s Drift, evocative of the 1879 siege in which 140 British soldiers held off a Zulu force of 3,000, later immortalised in the blockbuster film starring Michael Caine.
For 56 days in the autumn of 2006, the men at Musa Qala faced constant fire from fixed machine gun posts and mortars.
I note the Danes were there first:
Quote:
..the Danes took with them more than 40 armoured vehicles, eight heavy machine guns and a 12-strong medical team with armoured ambulances.
Quote:
Their British replacements had just two heavy machine guns, one doctor, two medics and a quad bike. When Taliban spies reported the huge reduction in armour and weaponry, the terror leaders scented an easy victory.
I am sure other nations faced such Taliban attacks, in sieges.
The UK in Afghanistan thread was closed upon the UK's exit from Helmand. It has 1052 posts and 194k views. Musa Qala appears in several other threads, including when the USMC fought there.
Shoot to kill allegations
The 'Daily Mail' reports on the:
Quote:
The truth about SAS shoot-to-kill night raids, by the hero of 200 secret ops: Soldier breaks ranks to defend elite unit from witch-hunt but says illegal killings were ‘unwritten rule of our job’
The report relies on an ex-SAS member coming forward, his views are summarised as:
Quote:
A former SAS soldier has admitted to The Mail on Sunday that illegal killings were 'an unwritten rule of our job' but strongly defended the regiment's actions; His account comes after claims emerged that SAS members killed unarmed civilians in cold blood and falsified mission reports; He revealed how he took part in 200 night raids between 2010 and 2013, many investigated as potential war crimes by the RMP
Link:http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...ght-raids.html
An official MoD response:
Quote:
They have found no evidence of criminal behaviour by the Armed Forces in Afghanistan, have discontinued over 90 per cent of the 675 allegations made and less than ten investigations now remain.
Unwinnable: Britain’s War in Afghanistan 2001-2014
Professor Theo Farrell, Kings War Studies, has written and advised the UK's effort in Afghanistan and now has published a book 'Unwinnable: Britain’s War in Afghanistan 2001 - 2014 (Pub. Bodley Head).
Robert Fox, ex-BBC and now London's Evening Standard has a critical review:
Quote:
His title says it all — for the British campaign, almost by design, and despite several stabs at retuning, reinforcing and adjusting, had little chance of success. At almost every level — international, national and the peculiar nature of Helmand and its narco-politics — the odds were against. The book started out as an official history..... it is a tour de force and a must read for anyone interested in how and why Britain became enmeshed by such a cockeyed intervention, and might do so again.
Link:https://www.standard.co.uk/lifestyle...-a3652561.html
I'd better get a copy, even if I have four other books waited to be read.
Amazon UK, with glowing publisher reviews:https://www.amazon.co.uk/Unwinnable-...e+theo+farrell