The British army has advised Prime Minister Gordon Brown that there are not enough supplies left in army stores to kit out the extra 500 soldiers he has ordered to Afghanistan — while foreign aid recipient India has been boasting of its new nuclear submarine.
Mr Brown ordered the extra deployment last week in response to an increased troop deployment by American forces in that Far Eastern nation.
In a shocking admission of just how run-down the once great British army has become, the Ministry of Defence advised Mr Brown that an immediate deployment was not possible because the Quartermaster’s stores are empty.
Training for Territorial Army members, who make up a large part of the increased troop deployment, has already been stopped due to budget cuts.
The deliberate underfunding of the army is well known, with British soldiers in Afghanistan already forced to purchase many of their own supplies.
Despite these desperate shortages, there has been no reduction in the foreign aid budget which continues to spend British taxpayers’ money like water.
India has received nearly £2 billion in aid from Britain over the last few years. This is almost the exact amount India has spent on its new nuclear submarine, which is now proudly being advertised on bus stops in India, as can be seen in the photograph above.
* Less than five days after being awarded the Nobel Peace prize, American president Barack Obama ordered an additional 13,000 troops to war in Afghanistan.
President Obama’s latest deployment is over and above the 21,000 troop increase he announced in March, which means that the American military presence in Afghanistan has increased by 34,000 since the Peace Prize winner took office.
According to the White House, the additional forces include support troops as the commander in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, appealed for tens of thousands of additional soldiers.
The Pentagon had said at least 4,000 support troops were heading to Afghanistan, including experts to help counter the threat from improvised explosive devices (IEDs) which have taken a murderous toll on British and American soldiers.
Previous reports showed that the majority of the electronic components of these IEDs are being supplied by Muslims in Britain. These components — circuitry, trigger electronics and adapted mobile phones — are purchased in Britain and then legally exported to Pakistan. From there they are smuggled to the Taliban and assembled.
The latest American troop increase means that there are more US forces in Iraq and Afghanistan now than there were in Iraq in late 2007. About 65,000 US forces are currently in Afghanistan and about 124,000 in Iraq.
The troop build-up and the increased intensity of the war make Mr Obama’s receipt of the Peace Prize even more baffling — unless, as is more likely the case, he was given it just because he is the first mixed-race American president.
