IRAQ
WAR LATEST –3,000 BRITONS sent home wounded and sick.
In
the Daily mail on Monday the 20th December an article by their
Defence Correspondent has shown the extent of the suffering caused to many families in the
land in the disclosure of the numbers of the wounded and sick –the result of
an illegal war.
*
Almost 3,000 British servicemen and women have been flown
home from Iraq for hospital treatment after being wounded or falling seriously
ill.
The surprisingly high figure shows the price paid by UK
military personnel for the campaign, which has so far cost 75 of them their
lives.
According to defence officials, the evacuation rate is
running at more than 25 people a week- more than 19 months after George bush
declared the war officially over in May last year.
As of last Wednesday the total number of medical evacuations
from all three services since the start of the war stood at 2,862 Ministry of Defence officials confirmed
yesterday.
But they would not give any figures for less serious
combat injuries that have not required evacuation back to Britain.
In the past four months alone 65 servicemen and women have
been flown home to the UK with serious wounds suffered in combat, as troops
continue to come under fire from rebel insurgents and face attacks from roadside
bombs.
The British force in Iraq peaked at more than 40,000
during last year’s invasion, and now numbers just under 10,000.
Since the build-up to war began around 60,000 UK
servicemen and women have been deployed to Iraq, many of them several times.
Last week, ministers announced plans to hand over the
British field hospital in Southern Iraq to Territorial Army reservists, amid a
severe shortage of regular Army doctors and nurses and with 900 more part-time
soldiers facing call-up orders.
The worst injuries include an Army sergeant flown home to
the UK for neurosurgery after he was caught in the blast from a roadside bomb
in Basra that killed Black Watch soldier Private Marc Ferns, 21, in August.
Last month, two Black Watch soldiers suffered ‘horrific’
leg injuries from the road-side bomb that killed their Fijian comrade,
27-year-old Private Pita Tukutukuwaqa, during the regiment’s controversial
deployment to central Iraq.
The two men survived only because they were standing
behind the door of an armoured vehicle, which apparently protected their upper
bodies.
The intense heat in Iraq-where summer temperatures
frequently top 50c (122f)-has also exacted a heavy toll, with large numbers of
troops collapsing from heat exhaustion.
In Basra last summer, more than 150 soldiers from one
brigade were flown home with heat-related health problems, and at least two men
have died from natural causes thought to have been caused by heat.
The MOD would not give total figures for the number of
soldiers suffering from mental health problems such as post –traumatic stress
disorder. Official figures fir the
first 12 months since the invasion began in March last year showed 460 recorded
as having mental health problems.
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MoD - obtains
almost half the COST of the
Iraq War and
Afghanistan
selling Army land - barracks-hospitals.July-2007
* * *
[We wish a
speedy recovery to health to those Forces in Iraq and those now back in the
UK] 12/04
*
www.eutruth.org.uk
*
www.thewestminsternews.co.uk
*
www.speakout.co.uk
*
Daniel Hannan - Forming an OPPOSITION
to the EU
www.telegraph.co.uk.blogs
*
VOTE
MAY -2007
TO
LEAVE
THE
EUROPEAN
UNION
WITH THE ONLY PARTY WITH A MANDATE
TO SET YOU
FREE
THE
UK
INDEPENDENCE PARTY
www.ukip.org
TO RECLAIM YOUR DEMOCRACY DON'T VOTE
FOR THE TRIPARTITE PARTIES IN WESTMINSTER
BUT
SMALL PARTIES THAT SPEAK THEIR MINDS
WITHOUT SPIN AND LIES.
*
ONLY
PRO-PORTIONAL
REPRESENTATION
WILL
BRING
DEMOCRACY
BACK
TO
THE
ENGLISH
PEOPLE
*
Home Rule for
Scotland
WHY NOT
HOME RULE for
ENGLAND
*
MAY/07
[All underlined words have a
separate bulletin
THE QUESTION THAT THE VOTER MUST ANSWER
‘DO YOU WISH TO BE GOVERNED BY YOUR OWN PEOPLE, LAW AND CUSTOM OR BY
THE CORRUPT ,EXPENSIVE UNACCOUNTABLE AND ALIEN BUSYBODY BRUSSELS’
-SIMPLE IS IT NOT?