Brits getting Wobbly on A'Stan

[onewingwonder]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/4521318.stm

 

[tomahawk6]

Not a real surprise. The UK is having all it can handle with its Iraq deployment. As for the other members of NATO not stepping up I suppose we should be glad the Russians didnt try to invade western europe.

http://news.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=2402732005

 

[Kendrick]

Well... I guess it's to be expected.  With everything run by, and for, politics, conflicts are all about costs, investments, and return. 

 

[oyaguy]

I suppose we should be glad the Russians didnt try to invade western europe.

Given their performance in Chechnya, that might be kind of amusing.

 

[COBRA-6]

Foreign ministers agreed to provide 6,000 troops for the move south at a meeting last week in Brussels, with most coming from Britain - which will lead the alliance's forces - and Canada.

But as so often in the past since Nato took over leadership of the Afghan peacekeeping mission - which it calls its number one priority - the details of this commitment had not been resolved.

Only the Canadian part of the plan is on track, with about half their 2,000 promised troops already in place in Kandahar.

Go Canada!

 

[KevinB]

They may want to go count heads in Khandahar...

Unless they are counting ex-pat PSD pers there is no way there are 1000 troops in country yet.

 

[Goldsmith]

wow, how impressive are the dutch, you'd think they might have something to prove after Srebrenica

 

[jimmy742]

The Dutch vacillation is political, as it was at Srebrenica, and not a question of military effectiveness I'm sure. Besides, our politicians and public are just as sensitive to casualties as they are.

If anything, we should be a little concerned. We have or will have no Apaches, medium lift etc..in theatre.  The Dutch and Brits do. If they scale back, we are more vulnerable and less capable. We'd be requesting what the Dutch are requesting.

So much for "well equipped".

 

[career_radio-checker]

Well... I guess it's to be expected.   With everything run by, and for, politics, conflicts are all about costs, investments, and return.  

Curious, does anyone have a rough guess-timate on how much it costs to have a 2000 Canadian contingent in Kandahar for 6 months?

 

[Daidalous]

Lets say it costs  10,000 a month per solider, which includes things like Monthly pay, over seas pay, food, water, ammunition, kit  etc.  It would cost  20 000 000 a month just for personal.  Then you have to throw in the cost of flying a Airbus at a wild guess of 200,000 for crew, fuel and repair or the Antanov at 1 million per shot,  every week to Mirage for mission resupply, 1.6 million per month  (if you sent 3 airbuses and a antonov per month) . Then lord only know how much we pay every month of truck fuel and other expenses related to camp operations.


So my rougher than not shaving for 3 days guess is    25 million a month.


With a grand total  of  150 million for the tour.

 

[silentbutdeadly]

i just recieved an email from an American friend of mine there and he said when i asked him about this that the Brits ae cutting back but there CAS is still coming and the American CAS is staying for longer. He thinks the reason the Brits are cutting back is because the amount of troops we are only sending in and that they didn't need that much for the area there going into.

 

[PPCLI Guy]

They may want to go count heads in Khandahar...

Unless they are counting ex-pat PSD pers there is no way there are 1000 troops in country yet.

Kev - I sign the DSR every day, and the figure ain't far off.  Think TAVs etc.

Dave

 

[KevinB]

WOW -- quite the tail...

 

[silentbutdeadly]

hmmmmmm?

 

[PPCLI Guy]

WOW -- quite the tail...

To be fair, a better way to say it would be WOW - quite the advance party.  Those 2000 troops arriving in Feb need somewhere to live and work, and vehicles, radios and ammo with which to fight.  The numbers of course include those who load planes  and those who offload ships, neither of which are actually in-country per se, although they are under command. 

Oh yeah, and Franko.

Dave

 

[KevinB]

Ah I see we are having a bit of fun with numbers in the deployed in support of issue.

I saw a huge contingent at the ISAF market last Friday, I dont think I had fully appreciated all who where in country beyond the PRT and TAT/Whatever/Franko'ish components.

 

[The Bread Guy]

Seems the Brits aren't the only ones worrying...

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,17732947%255E31477,00.html

"AUSTRALIA will not put its 200-strong military reconstruction team in harm's way in Afghanistan until NATO sends an extra 6000 troops to the troubled country.

Defence Minister Robert Hill said yesterday he was waiting for a resolution to Dutch indecision on numbers of reinforcements it will send as part of NATO's plan to boost its forces.

"We have decided in principle to send the team, but we are awaiting NATO's next step on who they will send into the southern provinces," Senator Hill said.

"As the Australian reconstruction team will rely primarily on the NATO force for security, we want to know who is going to put in, and what their timelines will be."  (...)

 

[tomahawk6]

Sad that military units cannot provide their own security. I can understand a security element for a civie reconstruction team, but for a military unit engaged in reconstruction to require still another unit for security is absurd, at least to this old war horse. I learned a long time ago that if you require security from outside your unit you are simply asking for trouble.

 

[british_soldier]

Hello lads, this is my first post here, i was only messing around on the internet and i found this sitead this thread. I am currently in the british army, and to be specific the British Parachute Regiment, we are going to Afghanistan and to the Helmand province. I read that BBC articleand as you all probably know articles have their inaccurices,and this was no excepion. To say we'recutting back on troops and not taking Apache helicopters takesthe piss really.It is fair to say that the politicans are doing what they do best-shit themselves. This tour is defintley going to happen, at worst it may be delayed a couple of months but we are going out there and who ever wants to take is on is going to get the good news. Cheers.

 

[MJP]

Good to hear your still coming....I guess we'll see you on the ground sometime in the next few months.  Cheers bud.