Tuesday, May 18, 2004
NOT THE KIND OF WAR I'D LIKE TO FIGTH Our gloriously rubbish media doesn't quite manage to give it enough space, but our troops are also having a particularly bad time in Iraq. And the enemy's tactics can't be helping either:
"The Mehdi Army are a very ruthless and
determined enemy," said Major James Coote
of the Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment.
"They will use any tactics available including
using children to attack us, or to hide behind
children, as they have done within the city
in the last week or so. Unfortunately they are
also very well armed.
"We have certainly won a few battles but we
haven't yet won the war."
For a large part of my life I wanted to be a soldier. However it's when I read things like that I' glad that I' not. What kind of choice is that:either be killed or kill a child that's being used as a shield. No wonder so many innocent bystanders are being killed in this insurgency.
As for controlling the situation in Amara: High time for some strong-arm tactics then? Not so fast:
This province has always been unruly,
full of criminal gangs and warring tribes.
Even Saddam Hussein struggled to control it
- now the British are struggling too.
Oh dear. Well I suppose we'll have to settle with containing this hotspot rather than pacifying it; a sorry policy that an independent Iraq is presumably going to have to continue.
"The Mehdi Army are a very ruthless and
determined enemy," said Major James Coote
of the Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment.
"They will use any tactics available including
using children to attack us, or to hide behind
children, as they have done within the city
in the last week or so. Unfortunately they are
also very well armed.
"We have certainly won a few battles but we
haven't yet won the war."
For a large part of my life I wanted to be a soldier. However it's when I read things like that I' glad that I' not. What kind of choice is that:either be killed or kill a child that's being used as a shield. No wonder so many innocent bystanders are being killed in this insurgency.
As for controlling the situation in Amara: High time for some strong-arm tactics then? Not so fast:
This province has always been unruly,
full of criminal gangs and warring tribes.
Even Saddam Hussein struggled to control it
- now the British are struggling too.
Oh dear. Well I suppose we'll have to settle with containing this hotspot rather than pacifying it; a sorry policy that an independent Iraq is presumably going to have to continue.
