Month: June 2016

Warming up for Chilcot, the BBC screened a polemic Panorama programme last night.

I hold great admiration and and deep sympathy for the parents of Matthew Bacon, who visited the site where their son was killed in a Snatch Land Rover on the 4th anniversay of 9/11 in 2005.

Hans Blix was right, but I didn’t agree completely with Graham Binns, or Christopher Meyer’s conclusions. For a more balanced picture of the Iraq War 2003-09, see Chapter 5 of Belfast to Benghazi.

Associated Press is reporting that 5 people have been killed in Benghazi, increasing the challenges for the Government of National Accord trying to unite the country and defeat ISIS.

We are coming up to the anniversary of the democratic election in Libya, which was the high point of 2012 before the country descended into chaos.  See Chapter 6 of Belfast to Benghazi for some of the mistakes, which led to the assassination of Ambassador Christopher Stevens and the second civil war.

 

The Daily Telegraph is preparing for the release of the Iraq Inquiry with an article written by Ben Farmer about the Army being too slow to scrap their “coffin” Land Rovers in Iraq  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/06/17/chilcot-mod-and-army-too-slow-on-snatch-land-rovers/

The families of the fallen deserve the answers they crave, but I do hope Sir John Chilcot explains the difference between technical safety and operational risk in his report, in order to avoid misunderstandings about blame.

See Chapter 5 pages 192-205 in Belfast to Benghazi for the story about Snatch Land Rovers and Army equipment in Iraq between 2004 and 2007.

Snatch 2b – IED Attack