The Australian Defence Force (ADF) is mourning the death of an explosive detection dog that was accidentally killed by a light armoured vehicle (ASLAV) in Afghanistan.
The four-year-old blue heeler cross, named Merlin, was resting under an ASLAV serving with the reconstruction task force in Tarin Kowt when he was run over by his own troops.
5 September 2007
Troops make another cock-up
Not content with the overarching experience of fear and violence of war, our Aussie troops in Afghanistan had to go and run over their own dog. That makes one "skylarking" death and one animal fatality on the Australian side. And what makes us think they are qualified for this 'reconstruction' effort?
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4 comments:
Poor Merlin :-(
The stories coming from my brothers about what's going on in Afghanistan are pretty interesting. They're doing quite well at burning poppy crops to disempower the warlords and other things to try and get things back on keel. The girls schools there are doing quite well now and there's been a bit of progress all round. I was quite pleased with Rudd when he said that when they pull out of Iraq (which is a lost cause and is in dreadful civil war) they will put more forces into Afghanistan (where real humanitarian progress is being made for women and children). There was an interesting article in Ms. magazine (the US feminist mag) several months ago about the progress made for women and girls since western military intervention there. Might be google-able???
Hi there..
Sorry for being a bit flippant when your bro is over there. :-( I was sad for the dog too. I hope he comes back and can get back to civvy life ok, after doing good work.
It's just that there are also non-military, non-armed ways to do overseas aid, and the Australian government has been burring the line between military and humanitarian intervention for some time now. I've heard only second-hand that it can make life more difficult for the aid workers who don't carry guns.
I hope its not too long now...
oh that should have read blurring. Dam. Insightful political comment marred by bad typing.
Afghanistan is fucking scary lately, even for the special forces. I don't know that anyone not with them would want to be there right now! Our soldiers are getting injured there but it's not being talked about in the media because what they're doing there is mostly secret stuff. The regional drug/war lords and Taliban are pretty cranky at their poppies going up in smoke. No new money for weapons! I know that there's great people doing great rebuilding stuff O/S, but I think what the military is trying to do there at the moment is very valid and will open up a lot of new opportunities for the citizens and then other organisations can help reconstruct what was there pre-war with Russia/Taliban control.
Iraq is a whole other story. The damage done by international interference is ridiculous. I laugh every time George says they want to give Iraq democracy like the US's. My brothers says that's the last thing Iraq wants - they want a system much better than the crappy US one where the guy with the most money gets voted for by the citizens with the most money! He was liaising with the local police, military and mayor so talking to him about these things is very interesting to say the least. Basically if the US wanted to "help" Iraq then they should have just sent in the marines, cleaned up Saddam and his cronies and then got the fuck out of there again. Instead their continual interference and refusal to let a country develop on it's own now the (original) dictator is gone has led to a worse civil war than there otherwise would have been and a lot more bloodshed.
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