Well this all went rather quiet didn't it? I hope it wasn't because of anything untoward that someone said!
First off I stand by the comments that I made re Alex's piece. Second my posting overlapped with his (two) which I was thus unaware of. If I had seen them before I would have welcomed him to the forum as I do now. Alex, your piece was excellent as was last week's. It takes rare courage to go unarmed and untrained into such dangerous situations (though I am sure that rudimentary stay alive advice was given). So bravo to you and Stuart Webb for doing so again and again. My reservation is of course with the written piece quoted on my previous post, that did not appear on TV and thus leaves me puzzled. You are embedded and subject to MOD censorship. You are careful what you say and talk obliquely about heavy T'ban casualties and leave it at that, which is all that goes out on Ch4. On their web site however you talk of a 'massacre' and wonder what if anything was achieved in this battle. If you had such reservations why weren't they aired on TV? They would surely have been the 'real' story! Does the fact that you have further reports to file inhibit you? Was the web piece merely a sop to your concerns? You were there, I wasn't (I'm glad to say). Did you pick up these vibes off of the Marines, or was it your own instinctive revulsion of the sheer waste of war? Rather reminds me of the Jack Hawkins preacher character in Zulu, as he is bundled indoors with a "Come along now gentleman sir, you're upsetting the lads". Will you impart your concerns to the lads when you see them next, Alex? Will you "Tell it to the Marines"?