Why Lance-Corporal Elson and our other 175 兵士s killed in an unwinnable war deserve better from this country

By Max Hastings for the Daily Mail
Updated: 16:07 BST, 10 July 2009

最新の 死傷者: Dane Elson

Yesterday, the 省 of Defence 発表するd the death of the seventh British 兵士 to be lost in a fortnight in Afghanistan.

It also 指名するd a man killed on Sunday: Lance-Corporal Dane Elson, 22, of the Welsh Guards.

He was patrolling north of Lashkar Gah in support of the Light Dragoons armoured group when an improvised 爆発性の 装置 (IED) 爆発させるd.

The Dragoons' 命令（する）ing officer said: 'It's typical of the man that he died while 供給するing cover to the 残り／休憩（する） of his platoon.'

In truth, the 陸軍大佐 was struggling to find words of なぐさみ to explain the unexplainable - a death that brings 悲惨 to Dane Elson's family.

I sympathise with the British 軍の spokesmen in Helmand who are almost daily called upon to find words to …を伴って the 告示 of 死傷者s: 'We are shocked and saddened. . . 優れた NCO. . . 深く，強烈に 行方不明になるd. . . heroic example.'

In truth, 式のs, it is hard to find much heroic about 存在 blown up by a 地雷, the 運命／宿命 of so many 兵士s in Helmand. IEDs 衝撃 意味ありげに upon 意気込み／士気.

Most men cheerfully take their chances in firefights, where superior 技術s and 器具／備品 usually enable them to 勝つ／広く一帯に広がる.

But it is a wretched 商売／仕事, to march or ride daily through the Afghan countryside, knowing tha t at any moment one might be blown to eternity without the smallest chance of 回避するing 運命／宿命.

No armoured 乗り物 is proof against 地雷s 含む／封じ込めるing up to 500lb of 爆発性の, such as the Taliban now 雇う.

Mail reporter Richard Pendlebury's vivid 派遣（する） from the 前線 line with the 王室の Mercians earlier this week 最高潮の場面s the savagery of the struggle to which the Army is committed.

The 棺 of Major Sean Birchall of the 1st 大隊 Welsh Guards is carried by 同僚s. Birchall was killed by an 爆発 whilst on patrol 近づく Lashkar Gah, in Helmand 州 on June 19

It will not be lost upon a 選び出す／独身 British 兵士 that, even as they fight and die in 操作／手術 Panther's Claw, the 運動 to （疑いを）晴らす the Taliban out of central Helmand, the British 政府 has 発表するd a defence review.

Rumour at the 省 of Defence 示唆するs that 大臣s want a 10 per cent 削減（する） in next year's 武装した 軍隊s 予算.

Incredibly, the Army is 脅すd with the loss of some infantry 部隊s. This, にもかかわらず overstretch created by Afghanistan which means 部隊s have to be 回転／交替d into 活動／戦闘, with only a few months' pause between returning from one （軍隊などの）展開，配備 and starting to train for the next.

There is an alarming and expensive haemorrhage of trained men who やめる the service rather than keep 搭乗 計画（する）s for Kandahar.

This is not because they are cowards, but because the schedule 軍隊d upon them by 動員可能数 不足 makes it impossible to have nor mal lives, above all family lives, in between. Almost everyone 伴う／関わるd, from 大統領 Barack Obama downwards, recognises that we are losing the war.

This does not mean the Taliban is 敗北・負かすing British and U.S. 兵士s. But the 同盟（する）s are 努力する／競うing to 安全な・保証する the country, and Helmand 州 in particular, in support of an 人気がない, corrupt and 効果のない／無能な Kabul 政府.

However much ground Western 兵士s （疑いを）晴らす at such cost in sweat and 血, there are nothing like 十分な Afghans to move in behind, 偉業／利用する successes and run the 地域.

A reserve officer who has recently served in Afghanistan 配達するs a 破滅的な broadside in the British Army Review.

Major Steve Miller 令状s: 'The new doctrine of "（疑いを）晴らす, 持つ／拘留する, Build" has become a parody of itself. We are really only （疑いを）晴らすing the 即座の 周辺 of the 安全 軍隊 bases, we are only 持つ／拘留するing the major 解決／入植地s, and we are not building. Selfprotection has become the main 手段, 増強するd by 空気／公表する strikes that can backfire and 土台を崩す the （選挙などの）運動をする.'

Another recently retired officer, Major Patrick Little, has likewise gone public in the 王室の 部隊d Services 学校／設ける 定期刊行物, 令状ing about what he perceives as 深い-rooted 失敗s.?

The 霊柩車 carrying the 棺 of 中尉／大尉／警部補-陸軍大佐 Rupert Thorneloe follows that of 州警察官，騎馬警官 Josh Hammond through Wootton Bassett after the pair were killed on July 1 when their Viking armoured 乗り物 was blown up by an IED

'All is not 井戸／弁護士席 in the British Army,' he says, before 宣言するing a need to '改革（する） a flagging institutional culture that has been slow to adapt to 現在の challenges'.

Junior officers returning from Afghanistan complain that no one in high places seems to want to hear their 見解（をとる）s. There is still 最高の professionalism in the British Army, together with a cheerful 乗り気 to 受託する the 危険s of a 兵士's calling.

But there is a growing 気候 of 不安 and 怒り／怒る that they are called upon to fight a 高くつく／犠牲の大きい war with 不十分な 資源s, no Afghan 感謝 and 冷笑的な 無関心／冷淡 from the British 政府. It was Gordon Brown's personal 決定／判定勝ち（する） to 拒絶する on cost grounds the American request - supported by Britain's generals - to （軍隊を）展開する，配備する extra 軍隊／機動隊s in Helmand.

From 最高の，を越す to 底（に届く） of the Army there is 狼狽 that 操作／手術s are 存在 行為／行うd on a 戦う／戦い-by-戦う／戦い basis, without any 信頼できる 計画（する）. This is 主として the fault of the Americans, who run the 同盟.

大統領 Obama's 軍隊／機動隊 '殺到する', 注ぐing 10,000 増強s into the theatre with more to come, is an 行為／法令／行動する of 約束. No one has yet come up with a 納得させるing 計画／陰謀 for stabilising the country.

The Taliban is nowhere 近づく 掴むing 支配（する）／統制する of Afghanistan. Most Afghans do not want the return of Taliban 支配する. But 安全 throughout the country continues to 悪化する, because they dislike the Kabul 政権 and 干渉するing 西部の人／西洋人s-just as much. A century ago, British 軍隊／機動隊s fought the same 肉親，親類d of 戦う／戦いs on the frontiers of empire. But theirs was a more innocent, fatalistic 世代.

Men acquiesced in the immortal answe r given to a 兵士 at Rorke's Drift in the Zulu war, when he asked why they were 推定する／予想するd to stand and die there: 'Because you're 'ere, my lad, because you're 'ere.'

Mail writer Richard Pendlebury experienced the heat of 戦う／戦い as '38' Engineers 大（公）使館員d to B company, 2 Mercians, 爆破d their way through the Green Zone

Today, such an explanation no longer 十分であるs. 兵士s know the 厳しい statistic, that an 歩兵 直面するs a one-in-ten chance of 苦しむing a life-changing 傷害 during a 小旅行する in Helmand.

The 致命的な 死傷者 人物／姿／数字s - 176 British 兵士s killed in Afghanistan since 2001 - understate the 苦痛. Men who would have died as recently as the Falklands War now 生き残る terrible 負傷させるs thanks to modern 医療の techniques.

To 耐える all this, it is 必須の that 兵士s should perceive themselves 努力する／競うing に向かって attainable 客観的なs, equipped with the means they need and the support of their 政府. Instead, they see an undersized army 脅すd with その上の 動員可能数 削減（する）s.

It is more than three years since the Helmand （選挙などの）運動をする began, but British 軍隊s still 欠如（する） 適する ヘリコプター cover. They perceive their courage 偉業／利用するd, their lives 危険d, 単に so that Britain can 'show willing' to the Americans.

Defence 長官 （頭が）ひょいと動く Ainsworth （人命などを）奪う，主張するd yesterday 'there is a real sense of 勢い' in Afghanistan. He said of British 軍隊／機動隊s: 'There is no 疑問 in their minds that they are 達成するing something.'

小型の sters are 強いるd to say such things, but they are untrue. When Ainsworth also 拒絶するd comparisons with Vietnam, he was 権利 about the 規模 - almost 60,000 Americans died in Indochina - but wrong to 解任する 恐れるs that this 衝突 looks almost 平等に intractable.

I am not one of those who favours quitting すぐに. Afghanistan's 崩壊（する） into anarchy could have a 墓／厳粛／彫る／重大な 影響 on Pakistan. But the 安全 状況／情勢 is 悪化するing, and those in 告発（する），告訴（する）／料金 are muddling. We must do Afghanistan 異なって or 収容する／認める 敗北・負かす and come home.

It seems intolerable that Gordon Brown should 行為／法令／行動する as if this was somebody else's 衝突.

This 労働 政府 sent the British Army to fight and die in Afghanistan, and 耐えるs an 絶対の 責任／義務.

Lance-Corporal Dane Elson, like the other 175 British 兵士s who have 死なせる／死ぬd on the 戦場, deserved better than he received from the country in whose 指名する he died.