Well - goodee for that!

Telegraph | News | Black day for Forces as 14 die in Afghanistan: "The Sunday Telegraph can reveal that, under new rules of engagement, the Armed Forces are now officially at war in Afghanistan."

This was tacked onto a long piece about the deaths of 14 soldiers in Afghanistan. Seems to put Reid in a spot for his assurance that our troops would not have to fire a shot in anger. Did he not have any advisers; was there no one with knowledge of Afghan history of fighting those who enter their country? The gross error about locals in Iraq welcoming us with scented rose petals was completely ignored.

Defense Minister Clown 2 Browne was quick to declare the downing was an accident. How the heck would he know at this time? OK - maybe the crew did get off a message about a problem but what was the cause of that problem? Surface to air missiles are available to the terrorists. We gave them loads together with training when they were fighting the Russians.

We are pushing the troops to the extreme in terms of workload and periods spent fighting. How can we be assured that the same is not being demanded of the aircraft maintenance crews and pilots?

The total lack of political concern at conditions there is criminal. The calls for extra support in men and equipment are still not fully answered. The RAF thought they might be able to squeeze out one additional Chinook helicopter - big deal! There should not be a single Chinook outside Iraq and Afghanistan. I see helicopters training in low flying up in the hills near to my home. Let them have some realism to it - train whilst flying in the place where they are needed. The pilots are doing training extension and it is not that they are just recently qualified in rotary wing operations.

Crocodile tears from Browne solve nothing. We haven't yet had B Liars performance in shirt sleeves with mug in hand. It is not as if there will be any good result to the drug denial plan. Vast sums of money were spent in Columbia to achieve a not very big reduction. Telling an Afghan you will deny him the drug income is like putting your hand in his pocket and taking his life savings whilst tickling his testicles at the same time. Let them grow the crap. Spray it with Agent Orange - make sure we tell the locals to stay clear of that. Singapore has the death penalty for drug dealing and I'm told that cut back a hell of a lot. Let people know that trafficking will result in death and not just them lingering in some 3rd World prison whilst the government busts a gut to get them out and back to softly softly England. There has been a procedure of going easy with users if they help police track down the Mr Big distributer. Stop that and put them in a wet room where they can be hosed down whilst choosing where their drug habit goes. If saving the future of an addict here requires that we send troops - unprepared and poorly supported - to die overseas, I'm happy to see the junkies die in their own filth.