Panorama.

just in case you hadnt heard:

BBC1,
22:15,
Sunday 3rd December 2006,
Panorama Special, "3 Commando Brigade: Hunting the Taleban"

Hunting the Taleban

 

Ta for that!!
My brother just texted me to the same effect!! Per mare, Per Terram!!

 

Cheers mucker!!

I didnt know about it until I read your post, but now I do the sky plus has been set to record.

 

so what did you think of that then?

certainly food for thought.

for us to have a disscussion on the geo-political situation surrounding our involvement in afghanistan probably wouldnt achieve much, but it was interesting to hear the honest opinions of those who were in the program. it does seem as tho the RMs out there were a tad pessimistic about the cause. (not that anyone can blame them after seeing what they are facing).

how do you feel? before watching i thought "there is a job that needs doing, and its being done." but now im thinking, "well why is it us? where are all the other western nations and why arnt their soldiers in the hotspots alongside ours?"

political issues aside, your doing a good job out there boys, and doing it bravely and admirably. keep it up, and come home safe.

 

They missed a golden opportunity to drop the RH Blair deep into Taleban country but didn't.

Overall, I think the Corp were portrayed in a very positive light.

 

I thought they came off as frustrated, sympathetic professionals doing a hard and vaguelly defined job and doing it very well.

The wider political questions of the program weren't as balanced as I would've liked, but on the other hand, that journalist has been in Afghanistan for the better part of a year and has a better informed point-of-view than most on the region.

 

I only saw the second half but thought it was very interesting. Pity TB wasn't taken to see some action with bullets wizzing past his head. He might have realised that war is not a game then!

(My initial shock was actually seeing British soldiers with beards... then I discovered they were Royals. I thought they had 'gone native' to use a Foreign Office' expression.)

 

Thought the RM detachment was very professional and honest in there action/duties, but the job in hand is a thankless task.

 

Journos always annoy when they don't do their homework. '3 Commando' indeed. A Staff Sergeant credited as being RM when perhaps he is an Army Commando or journo meant to say 'Colour Sergeant'.

Apart from that, good stuff. Calm, professional, considerate, intelligent. No gung, no ho (as an RM recruiting slogan once went). The Corps are in good hands.

 

Very interesting program. Watched it with wifey and my chum Ahmed Mohammed. We had a bit of a chat about it all afterwards. Ahmed was with the DRA in the 1980's (soviet propped up Afghan army) and wifey had family out there fighting the Taliban in the Sov time.

Both of them are totally baffled why "we" (i.e. the brits) are there. The Mujahadeen/Taliban (to them its the same thing) will always be in Afghanistan and since the country is totally shattered and can never be turned around they are impossible to beat. How can you win the hearts and minds of a population that doesn't want to be won over? What is it that the west can offer them? Some of the guys we are now fighting were of course trained and supported by the UK/US a few years ago.

During the last years of soviet aid Heroin output from Afghanistan actually increased. Muj/Tal and other warlords see it as a way of as a minimum getting cash, but also as a way of spreading it to the west. When the Islamic fighters arrived in bosnia they brought a drug problem with them. You need to get hold of that. There is currently no incentive for the local populationto plant anything other than poppies.

Since the DRA was destroyed in the mid 1990's, there is nothing for the brits to work with. You saw them trying to get the locals sorted on telly, but its a pointless thankless task.

The Brits are doing a hard job well (the better training, kit, tactics and prefessional ability is keeping the fatalities on our side down), but what for? Can we leave Afghanistan to its own devices? Don't know. Should the troops be Afghanisatn? No. Do they need better kit? more then likely yes. However what kit? What are they actually trying to do there?

 

I quite agree with Chalky, They were professional and seemed to agree with the locals! But as the Afghani soldier said they will be needed for another 6/7 years. Before then I think they (Bootnecks) will be needed here to fight in their own backyard