US slob 'framed' Col. Tim

The Sun ^ | June 22, 2003 | NEIL SYSON and JOHN KAY

[katze]

"Also, we should have no Americans under the command of foreign Armies."

Soon-to-retire, 4-star General Tommy Franks was the commander in Iraq.

COL Collins was the commander of British troops in a particluar area, but is still a full colonel and did not need a twerp major to interfere.

[Happygal]

COL Collins was the commander of British troops in a particluar area, but is still a full colonel and did not need a twerp major to interfere.

Absolutely.
And Lt. Col. Tim Collins, is a good Irish boy too! ;-)

[katana]

In a word, yes. It sounds to me like the major was acting like a weekend warrior a**hole and, even if he disagreed with the policy and thought the colonel was being a pompous jerk, he should have saluted, apologised for his mistake, and gotten the hell out of the British area of control.

If out of a desire for payback he's fabricated accusations about the treatment of prisoners which lead to a useless investigation, then he ought to be court martialed to boot.

[katze]

You make a good point about the weekend warrior. Doubtful there are many full-time Civil Affairs troops on active duty; could be the major wasn't happy about being called up. I realy don't doubt the story is true.

[OldEagle]

" and once he knew was too dumb to keep his mouth shut."

AMEN!!!

[DMZFrank]

Even if you are a POW, you are expected to render ordinary military courtesies to the camp commandant, and his subordinates. This is SUPPOSED to be a 2 way street, but the last enemy we fought that more or less consistently observed these provisions were the Germans in WWII.

[facedown]

Ping, per your post the other day.

[Cachelot]

In a word, yes. It sounds to me like the major was acting like a weekend warrior a**hole and

There's much more to this than the Brit sh*tstorm indicates.

First of all, from what I can make out, the Brits in Southern Iraq haven't exactly been "heroes". It would seem that they avoided fighting Iraqi forces as much as possible, preferring to sit in siege position and watch Saddam's critters hang, axe, mutilate and torture the civilian population. And that the cases of fighting and cleanup in, for example Basrah, was done by calling in American forces who would then deal the blows. The brits would then bask in the media glow. For a particularly fun piece of disinfo, see the British soldier who had supposedly taken three shots to his kevlar helmet. Turned out he had shot his own helmet, after placing it safely on the ground. The British "officer class" comments? "Boys will be boys. These are great jokers."

Second, having gained control of Southern Iraq, they seem to have been engaged in some kind of program to deny the civilian population supplies. This Collins guy sounds obsessed with "controlling the food", and that matches pretty well with what I've observed. The US forces had to slip water to the civilians "under the radar" because the brits wouldn't let them have any. All this stuff is actually here on FR in the form of credible news, if you care to look. For example, there is an article about the Sea Bees chipping in to produce drinking water for the civilians even though "they weren't supposed to". There's also an article about how the water pipeline got delayed because a British truck managed to damage it.

And now this Collins guy. Who actually sounds like a nut. Still under investigation, from what I hear, and not from input just from one American soldier. And his whole regiment is being disbanded, according to the "Irish Examiner".

Hmmmm.