100th British Soldier Killed In Iraq

[NOBBY]

Saw on the news another British Soldier killed in the last 2 days....

When are we going to say enough is enough and pullout?

Seems as though the Americans are dragging us further and further into the war, which is now in it's 3rd year.

I bet you will not catch Tony Blair's son enlisting in the forces, no he's off to america on work experience...

[Pervert]

Two deaths in the last two days in the supposedly safer southern region. We've gone the US route here---very little media coverage of what our troops are having to deal with, and the families of those killed almost being treated as disturbed by grief because they don't want any other soldier to suffer what their loved one did.

I see Blair did his usual round of hardhitting interviews yesterday---BBC Breakfast, GMTV and Richard And Judy. For all the good he does, he'd have been as well spending the last three weeks on Celebrity Big Brother. It's about his level.

[planeterotica]

Blair is keeping his head down with 2 soldiers killed in 2 days he hasnt got much to say, he should get our lads out of Iraq and then get out his self out of office.

[chatterji]

What I find puzzling is that the dead are professional soldiers. Not innocents. Casualties are inevitable in any military conflict. The level of military casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan is astoundingly low. Their blameless civilian populations, however, are being massacred weekly.

Armies are political tools and always have been. They enforce the will of the ruler or ruling class. They go where they're told to. That's their sole purpose. Our soldiers are professional killers. They are not conscripted or coerced into the Services, in any way. They take the pay and the risks associated with the job. They chose their destiny. End of story.

Obviously families are in pain when they lose a loved one who's serving, but how they can rail against the government for sending their boys into harm's way is beyond me. What did they think would happen when little Johnny joined up? He'd square-bash in Colchester forever?

Personally, I think that the media stance is ludicrous. Why the papers and news bulletins scream each time a squaddie gets it, is equally baffling. It's an unpopular war, but I find it impossible to feel moved, alarmed or outraged by the death of a few soldiers in an armed conflict.

[crofter]

Some points I would make:

Seems we went to war under false pretencies, with made up intelligence and false claims galore.

Britain and America didn't think through what the aftermath of invading Iraq would be they just went ahead and did it, they had time enough to have a plan B.

Tony Blair has come out this looking and smelling like shit, he is portrayed and rightly so as George W. Bush's little faithful puppy, he cannot now turn around and pull British troops out of Iraq until the USA decides and if he does can you imagine the ramifications this would have. Whether he does this arselicking routine for the betterment of the UK is a mute point though.

In my eyes most of the Iraqis were not worth saving from Saddam anyway as they seem to be "the scum of the earth" + the "lowest of the low".

[P-Nix]

So if no British soldiers had been killed then you wouldn't have a problem with us staying in Iraq?

I really don't like this attitude to the war, that it is wrong because British soldiers are being killed, not because Iraqis are being killed (by other Iraqis for the most part).

As someone said, 100 dead over 3 years is not that big for a conflict. Remember the start of the invasion, everyone was saying it would take months for Baghdad to fall, we'd lose loads of men. It didn't turn out that way, but if you'd have said to high ranking military personnel that we'd lose 100 in the next three years in Iraq I think they'd have accepted that before we went in.

Also, I cannot imagine what it must be like to lose a son, but I don't like the families of the dead soldiers saying Blair should send his children. Why? Their children weren't forced to sign up, they chose to become soldiers, they knew they might die, be it on exercise, in Iraq, Sierra Leone, Kosovo or anywhere. It's not like they didn't know the risk.

[Pervert]

The soldiers will serve because that is their job, but the fact that the families are so angered by the deaths suggests that the squaddies are making their feelings known in their letters, phone calls and when on leave. The belief is that the action in Iraq is more to do with politics than any urgent security reason. Who wants their loved one killed so that Tony Blair can look like a good friend to George Bush?

There might also be less criticism from families of armed forces members if the turnaround wasn't so bloody quick. Certain regiments get back from Iraq, have a few months in Blighty or posted elsewhere---then it's back to Iraq, and the knowledge that you are going to be a target once more. The excuse that these regiments already know what it's like doesn't wash.

Car bombs, armed gangs, insurgents---very little of this is reported here any more. It's every day life for Iraqis. God knows how they are able to cope.