Seventeen British soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan this month. However, accompanying this statistic is a stastic that goes almost unnoticed and that is the number of wounded, with the 'Guardian' reporting that in addition to those killed, "More than 157 soldiers were treated at the field hospital at Camp Bastion in Helmand province last week, according to army medics."(1) Now, while some of those injures might be of a less severe nature we would, of course, be right to assume that those who were treated were not treated for broken toes, cut fingers or sprained ankles. Moreover, although their is no detailed breakdown of just how serious the injuries are, the Ministry of Defence does say that "13 were "very seriously" or "seriously injured" last month" and those are descriptions which "include life-threatening injuries and amputations."(2) This is a real war that is being fought out there and it is surely time for the British public to ponder on the real reasons behind that war.
1 http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/jul/21/record-uk-casualties-helmand-taliban
2 ibid
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