The MOD today claimed that the delay in Geoff Hoon ordering the correct amount of body armour for UK troops must be seen in relation to the ongoing diplomatic action at the time in late 2002, early 2003. They claim that ordering body armour might have been seen to "pre-judge" the situation and could have been provocative.
This contradicts the actual evidence that showed that Geoff Hoon simply wrote "more information needed" on the request from the army for more body armour, thus causing a delay of some eight weeks to the body armour order. If Geoff Hoon has just agreed this request immediately, Sgt Steven Roberts would almost certainly be alive today.
It's a shocking indictment of this government again that they send troops to Afghanistan without proper helicopter support, they send ammunition that does not work properly and keeps jamming in machine guns to Afghanistan and they send troops to war in Iraq without body armour.
1 comment:
It is such a sad situation that could easily have been avoided but it is symptomatic of this government's failure at every level.
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