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It has been reported in the British press in March 2010 that British Soldiers "would be alive" if they had been supplied with the right equipment and tools for the job. The relatives of the first female soldier Cpl Sarah Bryant to die in Afghanistan in 2008 believe that she and her colleagues would still be alive today if the Labour Government and Gordon Brown had provided her with the proper equipment and training. The verdict of the coroner was that these British soldiers were killed unlawfully. The coroner said that they did not have the proper equipment or the training. The Prime Minister,Gordon Brown,said on 10th March 2010 that the training and equipment was being improved but this is all too little to late. Does he fail to understand that front line troops need the equipment when they are in the battle zone. What is so unbelievable is that when he was the Chancellor of the Exchequer did not seem to know what funding was required for an army in a war zone witness his evidence before the Chillcott enquiry wh he claimed to say that he was kept in the dark. I would have thought that any prudent person would need to know what was going on at all times. It is pathetic that he is only NOW sending more equipment and arranging for better training. Cpl Sarah Bryant was killed in Helmand Province in Afghanistan on June 17th 2008. With her were killed Cpl Sean Reeve, L/Cpl Richard Larkin and Trooper Paul Stout when their Snatch Land Rover was hit by a roadside bomb. The Snatch Land Rover was not designed for Afghanistan. It had previously been deployed in Northern Ireland on tarmac roads, not sand in a desert. This vehicle has been involved in at least 37 deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan. The inquest was told how British soldiers had repeatedly asked for Wmik Land Rovers which have much better off road ability where as the Snatch is designed for use on real roads. When the British soldiers were informed that they would only have the Snatch Land Rover for their specific operation they greeted the news with some "disbelief" indeed soldiers had nick named these vehicles as "Mobile Coffins". They were made to be used on regular roads as they could not drive off road. They had used a metal detector to check a water course for mines but some 70 metres later the Snatch vehicle detonated a mine hidden in a shallow ditch. The blast was described as huge. All four died almost instantly. If they had been driving a Wmik Landrover they would very probably have driven either side of the water course and therefore would have had a far greater possibility of surviving. A former infantry commander has called the Snatch Landrover a "death trap" and Dr Richard North a defence expert had advised that it was "totally inadequate" for dealing with mines and bombs. Major Sebastian Morley the SAS squadron commander in Helmand province resigned four months after this terrible incident and he accused the Labour government of being "Cavalier at best Criminal at worst " over equipping troops. He accused Whitehall officials of or continually ignoring warnings that people would be killed if they continued to allow troops to be transported in Snatch Land Rovers. At the inquest into their deaths evidence was heard that they were forced to use this vehicle because of vehicle shortages and that they lacked training in the use of metal detectors.Rather crucial I would have thought when you need to detect mines that are made of metal. The Labour Government says that the defence budget is rising but that is the very least that you would expect if you have two wars to fight one in Iraq and one in Afghanistan. The Labour Government failed to properly plan, failed to act or equip the troops with the proper equipment Therefore the deaths of these Soldiers must fall on their conscious. This is the Blair Brown legacy of soldiers sent to war who are poorly equipped and not properly trained. Only now, some two years after these soldiers death is Brown arranging for new equipment to be delivered in the later half of 2010, he has as usual, missed the boat. It is very sad that unlawful killing (the coroners' verdict) of British Soldiers is part of the Brown Blair Legacy. This is brought home to us every week as those lines of Black Hearses proceed through Wooton Basset bringing back our dead heroes. Gordon Brown has now confirmed in the House of Commons that his evidence to the Chilcot inquiry was wrong in that the funding to the British Army had not increased every year in real terms as he had previously advised. This is just unexplainable as he was the Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1997 for 11 years and Prime Minister since then. If he can not get these figures correct then this might explain why the UK is in such dire financial trouble. The time has now come for the electorate to remove these people from power as we cannot afford to waste any more lives. The Author writes many articles on world politics and for further information one of his web sites is at Gordon Brown News
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