| DEFENCE Housing for the armed forces and their families is to be improved under a £50million modernisation plan. The money, brought forward from the budgets for the next two years, is part of a commitment to spend £3.1billion on forces’ accommodation over the next decade. But Commander John Muxworthy, of the UK National Defence Association, said the Chancellor had failed to increase overall defence spending despite expensive deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan. He said: “The money for housing is welcome but it is a ridiculous sop. There is already a £2billion black hole in the Defence budget. The offer does not address the issue and the Armed Forces are going to be even worse off.” Click here for full report. |
Support our Soldiers
23 Apr 2009
£50m to improve forces' housing is welcome but does not solve the problem of under-funding
14 Apr 2009
Taliban publicly executes eloping young couple in Afghanistan’ Nimroz province
Ani
April 14th, 2009 KABUL - The Taliban has publicly executed a young unmarried couple in the southwestern province of Nimroz.
Confirming the incident, provincial governor Ghulam Dastageer Azad said couple was shot dead by extremists in front of a mosque after they were caught eloping.
“An unmarried young boy and an unmarried girl who loved each other and wanted to get married eloped because their families would not approve the marriage,” The News quoted Azad, as saying.
Terming the brutal incident an ‘insult to Islam’ he said local religious leaders had ordered a death sentence for the couple.
The incident once again brings to light the brutalities Afghan women are being subjected to in the country.
It is not only the extremists who treat women in the country as mere objects, but the government too seems to be backing the notion, as was evident from President Hamid Karzai’s controversial ‘rape law’.
The law, brought by President Karzai allowed Shiite men to demand sex from their wives every four days and keep them indoors indefinitely.
The law, which was leaked by an UN agency, stated that a Shiite woman must seek her husband’s permission to go outside which clearly subjugates the rights of women.
Facing severe international criticism over the issue, Karzai later ordered a review of the law saying he would send the bill back to parliament if it was found that women rights were being violated. (ANI)
1 Apr 2009
Untitled
Afghanistan 'just as tough as WWII' for troops
It's the equal of anything in British history, says minister
Published: 1 April 2009
Bob Ainsworth: "Our forces have it just as tough"
The comments came in an exclusive interview with Legion magazine, the full version of which can be read in the Summer edition, to be published in April.
He said: 'People shouldn¹t be any doubt about it. What our guys are doing in Helmand now, and were doing in Iraq before, is as hard as anything that the British Army has faced in its history.
'We were in a battle for national survival during WWII and there were a lot more people involved. But if they do six months hard fighting in Helmand and then they go back for another year of hard fighting, it stands up to what previous generations have had to do before.'
The minister also stressed that decision-making and responsibility extend much more widely through the ranks now. ³Somebody at the lowest level, a private or a corporal can do something, for good or bad; and it can reverberate around the world. These decisions are not all in the hands of generals and colonels any more.
'One of the things that¹s enormously impressive is the degree of decision-making capability that there is right down at the low end. A 20- or 22-year-old corporal has a huge amount of responsibility for their age. I¹m always flabbergasted by it.'
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
