Posted on 06/22/2002 5:26:25 PM PDT by Clive
Returning to this country from Afghanistan after three months of hard soldiering, 45 Royal Marine Commando may receive less public attention than the return of our footballers, but they have earned the nation's gratitude, and it needs to be declared. Our Armed Forces have grown accustomed to being constantly over-stretched and severed from their families, all without bonus pay, but they do like to feel that their services are appreciated. "The Afghan people feel secure with them," said Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, this week, as another group of British forces, based in Kabul, handed over control of the peacekeeping force ISAF to the Turkish military. While political problems lie ahead, the multi- national force, under the command of our Maj Gen John McColl, has indeed transformed the security situation in the Afghan capital.
The Royal Marines sent to help root out al-Qa'eda and Taliban fighters have had a thoroughly rough time of it, partly because conditions in that region of Afghanistan are a soldier's nightmare, partly because their quarry is now thought to have slipped away to Pakistan.
Ministers would appear, at last, to be heeding pleas to scale down our overseas commitments. Senior officers have been expressing for long enough their alarm at the extent to which overworking relatively slender forces has accelerated retirement and hindered recruitment. One can argue that ministers have shown themselves over-eager to oblige. It would be nearer the truth to say that the world sets high value on the quality of British forces. That in itself is some kind of reward.
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