As Prince Charles opens the new Defence Medical Rehabilitation Centre (DMRC) for wounded service personnel at Headley Court in Surrey, the focus of public attention falls once again upon the unacceptable number of deaths and casualties being sustained by British troops serving in Afghanistan.
Upon meeting the large numbers of amputee troops cared for at the new £16.9m centre, the Prince of Wales said: “So often people don’t hear about the number of people who are wounded on a daily basis in Afghanistan.
“It is only when you visit the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (where battlefield casualties are repatriated to) or here that you realise how many people are going through such horrific experiences. It is astonishing.”[1]
The numbers of service personnel killed or wounded while on duty in Afghanistan had been steadily rising up until 2009, following which the figures have fallen back substantially. However the total number killed or wounded in action up until 31st August this year, has now risen to 2,430 [2], of which 425 have died and a further 583 have been seriously injured, with almost 200 suffering single or multiple limb amputations [3].
The decline in the overall numbers killed or seriously injured since 2009 is seen as the result of a number of factors:
Firstly, attacks by the Taliban had been focused on destabilising Afghanistan in the run up to the Afghan Presidential elections in 2009, and with the re-election of Hamid Karzai, this objective had been temporarily removed;
Secondly, in 2009 US President Barack Obama announced that he would begin withdrawing US troops by 2011, thereby signalling to the Taliban that they need now only wait for Afghanistan to fall into their hands once the US withdrawal is complete; and
Thirdly, pending withdrawal, Obama announced the reinforcement of coalition forces with a further 30,000 US troops and also the allocation of a further 4,000 US military personnel committed to the training of the Afghan Army and police force [4].
In recent years therefore, the main method of attack employed by the Taliban has shifted from one of engaging coalition forces directly in combat to one of using improvised explosive devices, and it is these devices that have cause the numbers of serious injuries leading to amputations to rise, despite a general fall in overall deaths and casualties. The number of British service personnel suffering amputations has therefore risen from a total of 6 in 2006; to 13 in 2007; 30 in 2008; 55 in 2009; and 76 in 2010 [3].
With NATO and the bulk of US Troops now set to withdraw from Afghanistan by 2014 and an ongoing campaign of assassinations of prominent Afghan politicians by the Taliban, it is increasingly clear that efforts by coalition forces to keep the pro-Western government of Hamid Karsai in power beyond 2014 are futile. Increasingly clear also is the pointlessness from a Western perspective of keeping British and other coalition forces in Afghanistan where they serve no more purpose other than to merely delay an inevitable victory by the Taliban.
A nation should only become involved in a war if such intervention serves some clear national interest, which our involvement in Afghanistan clearly does not, and if there is the realistic prospect of a successful outcome. It is evident that there have never been enough coalition soldiers deployed in Afghanistan to provide even a remote possibility of defeating the Taliban and therefore Western governments should begin the withdrawal of our troops immediately, so that we suffer no more pointless deaths and casualties. The lives and well-being of our service men and women are too precious to be wasted in what is now simply a face saving exercise for the grandiose posturing of foolish politicians.
[3] https://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2010/apr/30/amputation-british-afghanistan
[4] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-12024253
By Max Musson © 2012
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