Afghanistan war reaches death toll of 223 military personnel after Corporal Thomas Mason loss
Posted by irenesword on November 2, 2009
by Irene Gimeno
Twenty-seven-year-old Corporal Thomas ‘Tam’ Mason, as his comrades knew him, natural of Rosyth, Fife, died on Sunday 25th of October at the Royal Centre for Defence Medicine, Selly Oak Hospital, Birmingham. The Scottish soldier became the 223rd casualty after medical efforts were not able to save his life from blast injuries caused by an improvised explosive device in Kandahar (Afghanistan); which makes 2009 the ‘army’s bloodiest year since the Falklands conflict’ according to a publication.
The news of the fatal figure comes then days after Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced that 500 more army men will be sent to the Asian country. The White House supports the action and it is expected that Obama will increase the US forces personnel in Afghanistan too, although the press secretary Robbert Gibbs has declared that a decision has not been made yet. The BBC UK Politics section shows that 56% of the British population stand against this war, which began in 2001, where the country was lead by Prime Minister Tony Blair –whose foreign affairs politics were severely criticized owing to the country’s participation both in Afghanistan and Iraq wars.
The controversy about the last deaths appeared when conservative MP Adam Holloway rose the question whether the government was investing enough money and military equipment and accused the executive of not taking the war seriously. The MP claimed that an official forwarded him a memo in which Lt Col Rupert Thorneloe, who was the most senior British officer to be killed -three weeks after the filming-, ‘warned about the risks posed to troops by a shortage of helicopters’. On the other hand, Chief of the Defence Staff Air Chief Marshal Sir Jock Stirrup said to the BBC that Lt Col Thorneloe’s brigade commander had confessed him his wish of more helicopter but he claim that ‘they would have made no difference to how certain operations were conducted’ and that ‘foot patrols are absolutely fundamental’.
In 2009, 87 British military men have lost their lives in Afghanistan, where serious trouble continues as the army has to fight the Talibans in the country. ‘A few months’ planned military operation has been extended for over the last eight years causing a terrible figure of 223 casualties. The responsible face for the Army, the Minister for Armed Forces Bill Rammel, declared for the BBC that as a politician he relies on military advice that tells him ”we have sufficient helicopters for the task” and assured that no one has died because of a lack of equipment.
ilovebeeswarzone said
sad to read again of soldiers having to pay a big price on a foot patrol,why do they go on a so important foot patrol around thoses roadside bombs?is a matter of life and death?to do it, why not wait for those bomb ezperts that are there to deal with the boms? thank you