The manner of the withdrawal of international forces from Afghanistan was a disaster, a betrayal of our allies, and weakens the trust that helps to keep British people safe. It will affect the UK’s international reputation and interests for many years to come. There were systemic failures of intelligence, diplomacy, planning and preparation, which raise questions about machinery of Government, principally the National Security Council.
Normally I think these veteran ‘operator’ interviews are high-powered bullshit, but this one is quite good. Honesty about injuries, loss, grief, and strain.
One of the biggest mistakes we made in Afghanistan. The Oz SAS had the same issue.
Unfortunately, given a considerable amount of leeway, little oversight, and freedom of operation, some units, when fed a list of names, turn it into a competition, either via pressure from above concerning metrics, or just stupidity. This was totally counterproductive, killing people whose names had often been supplied to UK forces not because they were Taliban, but because they were enemies of whoever supplied the names. The cover stories were thin (“He threw a grenade but it did not go off.”) and repeated, because they were barely needed. The more raids carried out like this, the more those supplying the names used them to settle scores. Fucking disgrace.
Russian troops are using zipties to secure their tourniquets to their kit. Modern combat tourniquets are designed so that you can use them with one hand, in case you get badly wounded and only have one useable hand. Would anyone like to try getting a tourniquet off your pack or webbing after ziptying it, with one hand, when you are bleeding out?
Certainly Russia thinks so, but I’m not sure anyone should accord their views any weight, having invaded Ukraine twice inside of a decade. Joining a defensive alliance isn’t an escalation.
