British troops move north at the behest of the Bush Administration to cover Marines massing to attack insurgent strongholds and to try and undo some of the heavy handed damage that US military "force protection" doctrine has wrought on Coalition/Iraqi relations.
About a week after they moved, three Black Watch lie dead in the dust. Despite the more benign tactical approach of British troops the damage done to safety and security by Pentagon policies extracted its inevitable price. After 18 months in Iraq, Britain suffers its worst casualties in Iraq since the killing of 6 military police near the start of the occupation.
Soldiering is a dangerous business. Nobody denies that, least of all the troops. But to knowingly send British troops into a situation that can only lead to greater casualties in support of an ally's disastrous policies is so redolent of the stupidity and crassness of the First World War it should lead to the prosecution of Tony Blair for negligent homicide. Is it not enough that we have sacrificed our security, self-interest, and principles on the altar of American political expediency that we now must sacrifice our young men too?
And you wonder why British newspapers run front pages like this:
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