As to Blair and Brown being somehow responsible for the deaths of these individuals, I simply do not see how that stacks up. The Government provides the Ministry of Defence with the 4th largest defence budget on the planet, and on top of that the operational costs of both Iraq and Afghanistan are met from the Government contingency reserves, this alone has cost many billions of pounds in UORs alone.
How does that square with events such as:
The 1998 Strategic Defence Review, which was never adequately funded.
The deployment of forces far beyond the planning assumptions of the 1998 SDR.
The cutbacks of the post-Iraq invasion
Developing Security in a Changing World white paper in 2004.
The further cuts in core capability (e.g. early withdraw of MR2) in December 2009 to fund operations in Afghanistan.
The SofS for Defence prohibiting CDS from liaising with Chief of Defence Logistics to prepare for the Iraq invasion, giving the MOD and industry just 4 months to prepare as opposed to the 6 months indicated by Ex Saif Sareea II. Hence forces entering Iraq without adequate NBC kit and bits of kit turning up 2 months later (i.a.w. the indicated 6 months.
The Treasury limiting the initial Helmand deployment to just 3,150 (later 3,350) personnel and £1.3 billion for a limited three-year campaign - based on no apparent military assessment of the mission.
By no means are Blair and Brown, or even other politicians, alone. But some of these decisions were political and the responsibility went to the top just as some of the responsibility in other ways lies with VSO who failed in their duty - whether by nonfeasance, misfeasance or, in a few cases, malfeasance.
One concern that has been raised about the ruling (in terms of the MOD having a Duty of Care that can be challenged judicially) is that individuals will focus on covering their arse and not taking calculated risks. But is that any different or worse than what we've had up to now: Ministers and VSOs taking uncalculated risks and arse-covering
ex post facto through lies, denials and obfuscation?