VIKINGS IN HELMAND
Friday, July 3, 2009 at 08:38AM 
Vikings in Afghanistan are NOT a good idea. So why has the government presided over their continued use when the liabilities are so well known?
British Forces in Afghanistan have been dealt a huge personal blow with the loss of the most senior infantry commander to be killed in action since the Falklands war. Lieutenant-Colonel Rupert Thorneloe, 39, the commanding officer of the 1st Battalion Welsh Guards, was killed when the Viking armoured tracked vehicle that he was travelling in was blown up in Helmand. Trooper Joshua Hammond, 19, of the 2nd Royal Tank Regiment, was also killed and six soldiers were wounded, some critically. The Viking, which has proved vulnerable to Taleban roadside bombs, was blown up about five miles north of Lashkar Gah, the provincial capital.
A sad loss demonstrating yet again the perils into which our armed forces are sent whilst being inadequately protected by the mean spirited anti military Labour scum in power. I salute Lieutenant Col Thorneloe and Trooper Hammond - and pass on my sincere condolences to their families. Both deaths are a tragic loss.
Afghanistan, Armed Forces 
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Reader Comments (7)
One of the comments in The Times reads thus:
'He died engaging the enemy of everything we stand for in the free world. May God bless his family and his unit.'
Can't really improve on that.
I was shocked to see on the ITV news British troops leaving their base and driving up to the front line in Afghanistan in canvas top Land Rovers,you could hear the shots in the distance.. It is disgracefully that this Labour government expect our troops to rise their lives fighting with such antique equipment.
The history of the use of unsuitable mine unprotected vehicles in both Iraq and Afghanistan is long and shameful, particularly as far better vehicles are available and have been for some time. The fact that millions of pounds has been spent on unsuitable replacements is also a matter for concern. Richard North (EU Referendum and Defence of the Realm) has been following this debacle for some time and his expertise is now considerable and worth serious consideration. It will make you despair as he demonstrates that many deaths in both theatres were preventable.
Many scores of deaths were wholly preventable. The exposure of Land Rover and Viking vehicles to roadside bombs has been well known for years.
Rectifying this only just begun because the political establishment and MOD simply do not care. There is no other conclusion that can be arrived at. Whenever the Commons has debated this the chamber has been virtually empty, yet at PMQs or when their exes are up for discussion it's standing room only.
I sincerely hope the families of those killed prosecute those politicians and civil servants who knew of the vulnerabilities yet did nothing.
The Commons is virtually empty most of the time. PMQs are a weekly showpiece for the masses, to try to show that parliament still matters. Thatcher started the trend of ignoring the Commons and Blair did even more to undermine it by rarely attending apart from PMQs, which he reduced from twice a week to once a week.
Brown has carried on where Blair left off. Government policy decisions are either leaked in advance (most of the budget and the u-turn on Post Office privatisation are recent examples), announced on the Today programme or even on Youtube when Brown lost the last shreds of his credibility.
The human beings in your military are its most precious commodity - to be protected in war at all cost. To send them onto the battlefield without proper protection is unforgivable.
The media are drawing a parallel between the death of a high ranking officer (L/C Thorneloe) with that of Col. H Jones VC, who died storming a fortified position during the Falklands war.
There the comparison ends because one man died truly heroically defending British sovereign soil, while the other was 'wasted' for no discernible reason at all.
The tragedy is that his family and friends probably know this too (as will all those who have also lost sons and fathers), and, as Peter says, the politicians mouth platitudes and do nothing.
We're such a decadent, enfeebled society now.