I hope to god there won't be any more undermining of what the lads are doing out there because of this. We are taking the fight to the enemy and that means we are going to lose lives. Many commentators will correlate the loss of life with incompetence but we must remember that to destroy these bastards we have to take risks out on the ground. Sometimes, we will sacrifice armour for manouverability but that in itself, is a form of protection. I hope that the troops continue to extract a good price for our loss and that for every one of ours who dies, many more of those evil bastards die.
These guys will.. (whatever we say) will fade from our own day to day memories but not from those who worked with them and who raised them and loved them. Those who they died trying to help over there will never know them either, and that might make it 'pointless'. But their lives weren't pointless - they knew friendships and experienced things that a slimy Nick Clegg never will. What he thinks he has in common with them, is beyond me. Nick Clegg by being the first politician to break ranks, is simply applying his tried and tested Speaker Martin model of making headlines. This is why, not only would I never vote for a Lib Dem politician, I would never even listen to one.
My heart goes out to the families of those who will spend this weekend in a mute, numb haze. I wish to god I could do something to ease their pain, but I can't. That makes me so angry and helpless, even though I'm past it and thousands of miles away.