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□アフガニスタンはイギリスにとってのベトナム(英文記事)
http://kavkazcenter.com/eng/content/2006/10/02/5782.shtml
Britain's Vietnam in Afghanistan
Publication time: Today at 09:42 Djokhar time
British invaders in Afghanistan suffer from savage and bloodthirsty firefights, from unremitting skirmishes with the Taliban and from shortages of ammunition and even rations.
Water has run out, so soldiers drink from disease-carrying rivers. They eat bread scrounged from Afghan troops.
Squaddies are tormented by sand flies and scorpions and are driven mad by stress. They are attacked by Taliban militiamen on motorbikes who open fire while clutching children in front of themselves, The Mail on Sundayreported.
Battles take place against a backdrop of burning villages reduced to rubble by aerial bombardment. On occasion, panic-stricken combatants have used satellite phones to call England with the harrowing message that they are about to die.
The evidence has been delivered to The Mail on Sunday by soldiers who say that their enemy is more numerous, more determined and better equipped than politicians have acknowledged. This, they say, is no peacekeeping mission. This is a new Vietnam.
The evidence has been delivered to The Mail on Sunday by soldiers who say that their enemy is more numerous, more determined and better equipped than politicians have acknowledged. This, they say, is no peacekeeping mission. This is a new Vietnam.
A soldier who agreed to an interview via e-mail said: "It is a lot worse than people know back home. Politics f****** politics. It is a massive cover-up really, to not get the real truth."
There is also, allegedly, considerable pressure on the Paratroops not to talk about Afghanistan when they return to Britain this month.
"They are using scare tactics,' said the soldier. "It is not fair. The Commanding Officer said that he would mallet anyone he found out was speaking out about this."
In the e-mails, the soldiers speak starkly of the savagery of engagements that are kept secret from the public back home.
An e-mail in the possession of this newspaper says: "That place Musa Qalah] is a ****hole anyway. The first wagon got IED'd hit by an Improvised Explosive Device] then as a rescue wagon came down they RPG'd it hit by a Rocket Propelled Grenade]. It was war-fighting, even so much to say we had bayonets fixed."
The soldiers had to use a spade to cut the body of one of their comrades from the wreckage. "Then we released the hatch to get the body out while getting contacted shot at] at the same time. The worst bit was stepping over the body to gather it all up and looking for dog tags."
The performance of the Royal Air Force is also called into question by the ground troops. This follows the claim by Para Major James Loden last week that the RAF was 'utterly useless'.
Describing the failure to re-supply troops trapped in a compound in the war-torn village of Sangin, a Para NCO said: "A dz drop zone] was marked, under fire and at night. It was extremely obvious where it was. The Hercules came and totally ignored it.
"They dropped it straight into one of the Taliban strongholds about 100 metres from our camp. We heard a big cheer from the Taliban. It was a massive blow to us. We had been expecting it for two days. We were cheering when it came in. Then we watched it sail away into Taliban hands."
This was not the only re-supply run to go badly wrong. Another almost cost the lives of Canadian troops. "We were told a British convoy was coming up with the re-plen so we expected Brit wagons. There were two guys in one of the sangars defensive positions built with sandbags]. It had got blown up twice by RPGs. They heard this rumbling and at the end of the street they saw some sort of tank poking around the corner. They had no idea what it was, but it was not Brit. They could not see properly. They thought it was ex-Russian stuff the Taliban had got hold of. So there's two guys running off down the street with 84s shoulder-held missiles] just about to blow them up, until one of the guys saw this maple leaf on the front of one of the wagons. We got on the net radio] and had a massive meltdown about why we were not told they were coming."
The mental and physical wellbeing of British forces is also called into question. E-mail testimony suggests that incidents of soldiers wetting and soiling themselves are now commonplace. They wake up screaming from nightmares and have even made harrowing calls to their families during enemy engagements.
The picture of life at the main British base, Camp Bastian, is a little more encouraging. Frustration at the rationing of food in the cookhouse leads to the soldiers pulling spoons from cooks' fingers and serving themselves.
KC
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