British troops in Musa Qala were besieged for months by vastly superior numbers of Taliban. They repulsed relentless assaults almost daily. It was the locals in Musa Qala who requested a cease-fire. This also allowed the British to release troops for offensive operations. The British had very limited numbers of troops on the ground in Afghanistan. When the Taliban broke the truce, they lost the respect of the Afghan locals. British infantry have led all the major offensives in Helmand province.
The British effort in Afghanistan has been very successful. For the first time since 2001, the Taliban are being driven out of their Helmand heartland. This has come at a cost for British troops, bearing the brunt of the fighting. Often cut off and surrounded for weeks in isolated outposts the British have won every one of their engagements. One Canadian soldier sent to relieve such an outpost descibed the British as ‘unbelieveable soldiers’ and couldn’t believe that the British had fought on in such conditions for months. I’ll see if I can find the article. Dozens of gallantry medals have been awarded. Mnay articles on these have been posted on FreeRepublic if you look.
With regards to Iraq. It has been speculated that the British were about to leave ‘imminently’ several times over the last few years. Each article has brought many anti-British slurs on this website, despite not turning out to be true.
The British are having a tough time in Basra at the moment. But the UK government is still refusing to put a timetable on UK troop withdrawals.
Well one wonders why in the hell the USA troop surge didn’t include sending help to Basra or maybe that is on the time table?
I don’t blame the soldiers at all, having met a few along the way. I do blame the commanders.
It was noticeable that there were complaints about lack of air support in Helmand—that there was a fear of ground fire hitting helicopters. My questions were, “Were the helicopters not armored enough?” “Did they not have sufficient weapons ranges?” And “Why did soldiers on the ground not call for US air fire then?” They speak the same language as ours to call for fire. There was an apparent excess of independence going on.
...same in Basra. If patrols could not be done with Iraqi soldiers during training for some reason, why were US soldiers not there to help?
It appears that after all these years, allied commanders and politicians have not been communicating well enough with each other again.
I know that US and British enlisted soldiers get along fine, BTW, and sense a Montgomery in the bad mix. We don’t have a Patton these days.
Some commissions from enlisted ranks of both forces would solve some of the problems that have occurred, IMO. ...too many lords of various sorts in command in both forces.