Fitaloon at MicroShaft

Always and Forever

Another sad day when I have to post the sad news of the deaths of more than one soldier. I had reported the death of a soldier yesterday earlier on, but another death has been announced. Again this is from 3 Rifles. The MOD has this:

It is with sadness that the Ministry of Defence must confirm the death of a soldier from 3 RIFLES.

The soldier died from wounds received as a result of small arms fire which occurred near Sangin, in Helmand Province, during the morning of 6 March 2010.

The soldier’s death was not connected to Operation MOSHTARAK.

Spokesman for Task Force Helmand, Lieutenant Colonel David Wakefield, said:

“It is with deep sadness I have to inform you that a British soldier from 3 RIFLES lost his life this morning as a result of small arms fire.

“He was on a deliberate operation against insurgents to the south of Sangin District Centre, near Patrol Base Suffolk, when he was shot.

“He died boldly taking the fight to the enemy and will not be forgotten.”

The soldier’s next of kin have been informed and have asked for a period of grace before further details are released.

My thoughts are with his family and friends on this sad day.

Again we see a death, not connected with Operation Moshtarak, and I  wonder if our concentration of forces in this operation is just moving on the Taliban to less well  defended areas, are we struggling to keep the other areas so well policed and patrolled as we are being stretched by the current operations in progress. Let us hope this is not the case, it will not have been helped today by the visit of Brown. As Michael Yon the American War Correspondent and Photographer notes on similar visits:

WAR TOURISM: Saw this in Iraq, and see it here, too. VIPs — and journalists — come to war for short periods, then go home knowing nothing more. Yet they get on television and say, “During my five trips to Iraq and Afghanistan…” ( They leave out the part that those five trips totaled maybe 10 days on the ground, and wasted a lot of commanders’ time while same commanders could have been war fighting.) War Tourists waste US money, drain helicopter and other assets, and rob commanders of crucial time that should be spent on our troops and the enemy. War Tourists would do us all a favor by going to the Pentagon for briefings while leaving the war fighters alone.

Just substitute the UK for the US and MOD for Pentagon and you will see how it applies to the Britain as well.

Ministry of Defence | Defence News | Military Operations | Soldier from 3 RIFLES killed near Sangin on 6 March.

As I said earlier, what initially looks good for Gordon Brown tends to come back and bite. It appears that is exactly what is happening from his “performance” at the Chilcot Inquiry.

First we have this in the Telegraph, watch the video first at this link and watch the  Brownie being laid.

And then we have the rebuttals as follows

General Lord Walker, chief of the defence staff from 2003 to 2006, has said that defence chiefs threatened to resign over the cuts they had to make because of the 2004 settlement. Mr Brown insisted that the chiefs had been happy with that budget.

“The spending review of 2004 was welcomed by the chiefs of our defence staff,” he said. “They were satisfied at the end of the review that they had the resources they needed.”

That claim has been challenged by senior military figures, with one former head of the Armed Forces calling it

“disingenuous.”

“To say Gordon Brown has given the military all they asked for is simply not true,” Lord Guthrie, a former chief of the defence staff, writes in The Daily Telegraph.

“He cannot get away with saying I gave them everything they asked for, that is simply disingenuous. A senior military figure involved in the 2004 spending talks said Mr Brown’s claims were

“nonsense.”

The commander said:

“To say it was ‘welcome’ is to use a great deal of poetic licence.“To say the outcome of that process was ‘welcome’ is frankly hyperbole.”

Major General Patrick Cordingley, a commander in the first Gulf War, said:

“The real truth is the Armed Forces are underfunded.”

Asked if he was aware that the chiefs had threatened to resign over the 2004 budget, Mr Brown said:

“I can’t remember all the conversations I had.”

Shall we say that is convenient

Liam Fox, the Conservative shadow defence secretary, accused Mr Brown of a

“pathetic” attempt to avoid his responsibilities and said the Prime Minister’s evidence “does not add up.”

Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrat leader, said Mr Brown’s claim

“flies in the face”

of the evidence.

Next we have this from another article in the Telepgraph:

Gordon was similarly absent from the key meeting on July 23, 2002, presumably busy conducting an investigation into the loss of several boxes of paper-clips from the Treasury typing pool. Most startling of all, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the second most senior member of the Government, did not even see the legal opinion written by the Attorney General, Lord Goldsmith, on March 7 2003, querying the legality of the war.

By the end of this catalogue of absence, abstention and ignorance it would not have been surprising to hear Gordon announce that he had learned of the invasion of Iraq from the tea lady at Number 11. There is something far wrong here. Either Gordon is being economical with the actualité, as he is economical with so many other things, or this is the revelation of a totally fissured and dysfunctional government.

How many more times do we have to listen to our Prime Minister lie ? It is time that he was shown up for the liar he is and the disgrace he is bringing upon this nation. Then again all these senior Armed Forces could be lying, In Gordon Brown’s delusional  La-La Land they are.

Iraq inquiry: Army big guns attack Gordon Brown’s defence budget claims – Telegraph.

Four years ago, when the Conservative Party elected me as Leader, we made a choice about the way our Party should be.

We made a choice to be modern and radical – not to play it safe or retreat into the old comfort zone. Today, the Conservative Party is modern and radical – and that’s the way it’s going to stay.

Britain is crying out for a modern and radical alternative to this failed Labour Government. Under Gordon Brown, this country is going in the wrong direction and we need big changes to turn things around. We have the biggest budget deficit in our peacetime history. We’ve got massive social problems. And we’ve got a political system that’s been dragged through the dirt. We cannot solve these problems unless we are bold and radical.

So as I explain in this video, we have made our choice and we’re not going back. Our plans for our country are not timid, and the truth is they cannot be. The Conservative Party is a modern and radical party – and our modern and radical values are what this country urgently needs.

The Blue Blog » We are a modern and radical party.

Kohana a Cuddlier one than Tilikum

Sadly I think the clue is in the name of the type of Whale.

We went to Seaworld back in 2004 in Orlando and the show is tremendous, but you keep thinking these are wild animals and the training cannot change their basic aim in life to eat.

The BBC has this sad story

A trainer at the SeaWorld park in Orlando, Florida, has died after being attacked by a killer whale.

Witnesses said the whale had jumped and grabbed Dawn Brancheau by the waist from a poolside platform before dragging her underwater.

Guests were evacuated while fire crews tried to rescue the 40-year-old, but they were unable to revive her.

The orca, Tilikum, was also involved in the death of a female trainer in Canada in 1991, reports said.

Other orcas were also said to have attacked trainers at SeaWorld parks in 2006 and 2004.

‘Shaking her violently’

Chuck Tompkins, SeaWorld parks’ head of animal training, was quoted by Reuters news agency saying: “She was rubbing the killer whale’s head, and [it] grabbed her and pulled her in.”

Kohana a Cuddlier one than Tilikum

Sad that a lady who has devoted many years of life to training and looking after these animals should be killed by them, It reminds us that nature can be truly savage.

BBC News – SeaWorld trainer dies in killer whale attack in Orlando.

See them live here