Britain Begins to Break

[Admiral Yi]

Is money all you ever think about? 

It is a nation of shopkeepers after all.

[The Minsky Moment]

Anyway, I'm surprised with the lack of progress with Afghanistan. After all, every single invasion that tried to occupy Afghanistan before was a full success.

I guess that explains the problem then - because the UK is not invading Afghanistan nor attempting to occupy it.

[grumbler]

I guess that explains the problem then - because the UK is not invading Afghanistan nor attempting to occupy it.

To a Polack, one foreign adventure in Afghanistan looks much like another.  When they tried to join the West, people tried to tell them about time, but time just isn't a concept that comes naturally to them.

The younger generation, luckily, appears to fully understand the concept of time and, after the Martinuses of Poland die out, this will be but a matter of gentle joking.

[Grey Fox]

What impressed me is Canada has nearly as many dead as the UK.

We would have less if your pilots could see clearly that Desert CADPAT isn't a Taliban used camouflage.

[grumbler]

We would have less if your pilots could see clearly that Desert CADPAT isn't a Taliban used camouflage.

Tell your own dudes to stop killing each other in FF incidents, and then complain about Yi's pilots.

[Siege]

What impressed me is Canada has nearly as many dead as the UK.

We would have less if your pilots could see clearly that Desert CADPAT isn't a Taliban used camouflage.

Friendly fire is a sad reality in our line of work.
I've never been afraid of the enemy, but I have always been afraid of being in either end of a friendly fire incident.

[CountDeMoney]

What impressed me is Canada has nearly as many dead as the UK.

We would have less if your pilots could see clearly that Desert CADPAT isn't a Taliban used camouflage.

Friendly fire is a sad reality in our line of work.
I've never been afraid of the enemy, but I have always been afraid of being in either end of a friendly fire incident.

Well, a boy can always hope.

[viper37]

What impressed me is Canada has nearly as many dead as the UK.

Canadians never retreat. Canadians never surrender.  Canadians die. 

Most deaths are caused by IEDs.  Most transports in done on the ground, we don't have much helicopters, though we rented a few ones from the Americans, I believe, and maybe the Russians too.  The Canadians are in the south with the British, in the most volatile zone of the country.  You got to understand that altough there are many nations there, most of them do not chase Talebans and some of them (the Germans for example) will never leave the base.

For every increase in vehicle armor the army brings, the Talebans seems to be able to match it with more powerful explosives.

I don't really know if helos would be the 'miracle' solution; they probably would get shot down anyway, but I suppose it's harder to find rockets than simple explosives.

[viper37]

Tell your own dudes to stop killing each other in FF incidents, and then complain about Yi's pilots.

I'm not aware of any such incident?

[Warspite]

Anyway, if you want a Brit-in-the-defence-establishment's view on this, this is all really a media hurricane. Journalists do not seem to understand that you will sustain casualties when on offensive operations. Even the whole equipment fiasco is overblown. While there are genuine problems (and even the helicopters issue is not as straightforward as made out), shoving a microphone into the face of a grieving mother and asking her "Do you find it criminal that your son died because of a lack of equipment' is not analysis.

This is not to say, in any manner, that these deaths are not tragic. But they are professional soldiers. They understand the sacrifices they may have to make. They know what they signed up for, and they want to do a good job for their comrades, their regiments, and Afghanistan. Most military families feel the same way.

So to suddenly have the media harping on about the 'waste of life' in Afghanistan to me seems like a bunch of headline-happy journalists scrambling around for the most controversial angle on this story. Which is pretty ironic considering there's a much more meaty story just below the surface - the fact that no officer of whatever rank can criticise govt policy (like saying 'we need 2,000 more troops' or 'we need 50 more helicopters') even in private or they find their career brought to a swift halt.

[Queequeg]

Anyway, I'm surprised with the lack of progress with Afghanistan. After all, every single invasion that tried to occupy Afghanistan before was a full success.

Actually, there have been quite a few long term occupations and invasions of Afghanistan.  They are tough, but so are a lot of the surrounding folks. 

[saskganesh]

Anyway, I'm surprised with the lack of progress with Afghanistan. After all, every single invasion that tried to occupy Afghanistan before was a full success.

Cyrus, Alexander, the Kushans, the Mongols, and Tamerlane among others handled it fairly well. Tough fighting of course.

Being a gateway to both India and Persia made it hard to hold. But historically, it was other nomads/foreign armies that were the major threats to longer lasting Afghan states, not really the inhabitants.

[saskganesh]

What impressed me is Canada has nearly as many dead as the UK.

I don't find our bodycount very impressive, just sad.

We've had about 120 casualties in the theatre, and so far, about 60 suicides after deployment/discharge.

[Queequeg]

Anyway, I'm surprised with the lack of progress with Afghanistan. After all, every single invasion that tried to occupy Afghanistan before was a full success.

Cyrus, Alexander, the Kushans, the Mongols, and Tamerlane among others handled it fairly well. Tough fighting of course.

Being a gateway to both India and Persia made it hard to hold. But historically, it was other nomads/foreign armies that were the major threats to longer lasting Afghan states, not really the inhabitants.

All true.  The Safavids made a pretty good go of it fairly recently, so did the Mughals. 

[Berkut]

Wow, Marty gets punked yet again, and on such a predictable subject.