Afghan troops face new enemy

Taliban fanatics have been making "hate calls" to the UK homes and relatives of soldiers serving in Afghanistan.

Senior commanders believe they get the numbers either by monitoring troops' mobile phone calls or from staff at Afghan phone companies.

The wife of one RAF officer was told: "You'll never see your husband alive - we have just killed him."

It was some hours before officials could confirm that her husband was still safe and well. All troops serving in southern Afghanistan have now been banned from carrying mobile phones.

Soldiers in Iraq can keep their phones but have been warned to keep their use to a minimum.

This is bad and it is about to get a lot worse for our soldiers in Afghanistan because the Taliban are teaching children as young as 6 to kill our soldiers. I don’t know about our soldiers but I wouldn’t relish the thought of killing someone so young and brainwashed.

Troops have inferior equipment

It’s never a good idea to go to war with an army that is badly equipped but our government have done just that. According to General Sir Michael Rose our troops are being sent to war less well-equipped than they were 40 years ago.

I don’t think we were fighting two wars 40 years ago either but thankfully we are slowly withdrawing from Iraq unfortunately those troops won’t have long to rest and be with their families before they are sent to sunny Afghanistan to fight the Taliban. I bet they are enjoying fighting for us with inferior equipment and being treated like shit by the government.

Soldiers will get free post

Soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq seem to be having a bit of good news for a change lately. On Saturday the government announced that they are going to conduct an Afghan medal review to see if they should give a special medal to those serving in Iraq.

Today, there is more good news with the news that soldiers and their families and friends will get free post which is bound to boost morale.

Afghan envoys get pool while our troops go thirsty

With all the stories in the papers about the military lately you would be forgiven for thinking that our soldiers are neglected by our government but apparently they are not. Our armed forces minister thinks the government is doing their best for the armed forces.

If the government are doing their best it is strange to find out that the Foreign Office spent tens of thousands of pounds on an 18 metre pool and gym for their bureaucrats in their embassy in Afghanistan. It takes an estimated 50,000gallons of water to fill - enough to supply soldiers fighting the Taliban in the southern Helmand Province with 750,000 250ml bottles of water.

MoD to conduct Afghan medal review

A senior officer is to head a committee to review whether a special honour should be given to soldiers fighting ferocious battles in Afghanistan, defence sources said yesterday.

While the MoD initially refused to consider the idea, Army sources said the ministry was now "taking this matter seriously".

A committee, chaired by a three-star ranked officer, a lieutenant general or equivalent rank, "has been formed to look at the issue".

This is atleast a step in the right direction from a government who normally can’t do anything right but then again they were bound to get something right eventually. I can’t see a senior army officer refusing to give his men a medal.

Government reject new medal for Afghanistan vets

The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have shown the heroism of our armed forces and the length that our soldiers will go to so that they can help out their comrades. Army captain David Hicks continued fighting a Taliban attack despite suffering agonising injuries that would later kill him. He showed true heroism, refusing to abandon his men and doing his best to keep them alive.

There have been calls for a new medal to recognise the heroism of British troops in the Afghan warzone. The government have rejected this which is probably a kick in the teeth to many who are fighting for their lives in Afghanistan. This can’t be good for morale which is already low. The government won’t even do the little things that might improve morale. Some think that families of soldiers shouldn’t have to pay to send food parcels to troops and I think they are right. This might improve their morale but they would have to stop losing the food parcels first.

War on terror not going too well

The war on terror isn’t going too well for us. It’s particularly bad in Afghanistan as our troops are being killed at such a rate that, were it to continue, one in 36 would not survive a six-month tour of the country. These troops also face the possibility that while they are on tour their pay will be docked which is an efficient way of destroying morale amongst troops especially when some weren’t paid for weeks.

The war on terror is being further hampered by an exodus of officers from the Intelligence Corps, with 20 per cent departing in the past three years. Is it any wonder they are leaving in droves when we treat our troops worse than something we find on the bottom of our shoe? The exodus of experienced officers has meant that inexperienced officers are handling things they should not be handling which is damaging the fight against terror.

The government is of course the one to blame as they are treating our soldiers badly. The only way to keep the experienced officers is to pay them a decent wage and handle things the way that they think they should be handled as they have the experience so they know how it should be handled.

Labour silencing opposition

Now that the postal workers have been silenced the government is now focusing on silencing the military. The government have banned service personnel from speaking publicly about their service. Soldiers, sailors and airforce personnel will not be able to blog, take part in surveys, speak in public, post on bulletin boards, play in multi-player computer games or send text messages or photographs without the permission of a superior if the information they use concerns matters of defence.

No doubt this is to stop people finding out how bad this government treats people in the army. In the future we may not be able to find out such things like the fact that one in five soldiers are mentally distressed or that we could be in Afghanistan for another 38 years.

Whatever it is the government don’t want you to know about in. Gordon Brown hates any opposition and will do anything to keep any criticism silent. If he was actually doing his job right he wouldn’t need to make this order.

More troops go to Afghanistan

Yesterday the Ministry of Defence said that troop levels in Afghanistan will increase by 100 by the end of the year and will be boosted by a troop of Viking armoured vehicles.

There is still no sign of the transport aircraft or the helicopters that are needed. You would think that if you increase the number of soldiers there would also be an increase in aircraft to help them complete the job or just to help them get in and out of war zones. The government don’t see it that way though and they have probably forgot that Blair promised the troops whatever they need to complete the job.

Blair changes tune on Afghanistan

Remember a few days ago when we found out that Blair was lying when he said troops will get ‘whatever they need’.

Well ‘whatever they need’ has now changed to ‘we will listen carefully to any requests that are made to us’. In other words they will get fuck all to save their lives. I bet those servicemen just love risking certain death because they can’t get the armour they need to put up a decent fight.

Can we trust anything of what Blair says?

Blair caught lying to troops again

Remember when Blair said that troops in Afghanistan will get ‘whatever they need’? Well our army is being denied the armour that could save the lives of our troops.

They will also be denied 12 Challenger 2 tanks, 14 Warrior armoured vehicles and four AS90 artillery guns - plus an extra 600-strong battalion of troops. So much for getting whatever they need.

This is yet another example of the utter contempt he has for Britain. He says troops will get whatever they need but just weeks later he is caught lying. Can we trust Blair when he says anything? He is constantly lying to the British public and those that heroically fight and die for this country.