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After badgering the MoD, I am delighted that one of my officers was included in the first recipients of the new General Service Medal (GSM 08) awarded by the Defence Secretary, Michael Fallon in June.

Capt Amanda Wilcox-Jones from Winchester deployed to Libya in March 2012 to run the first English language course for the Libyan Armed Forces at Jansur (see page 253 of Belfast to Benghazi).

http://www.mereobooks.com/books/genre/biography-memoirs/belfast-to-benghazi  https://www.amazon.co.uk/Belfast-Benghazi-Untold-Challenges-War/dp/1861515669?ie=UTF8&keywords=belfast%20to%20benghazi&qid=1464202598&ref_=sr_1_1&sr=8-1

 

Speaking at the War and Peace Revival Festival in Kent this week.  I am sharing the Vintage Pavilion with some wonderful authors, including 96 year old Normandy veteran Albert Figg and 97 year old “Die Hard” Jeff Haward, who fought throughout the entirity of WWII.

Thanks to Phil Challands at FRL Media Group for this photograph.

Discussing the poor preparation for the Iraq War with Carl Dinnen outside the House of Lords    http://www.itv.com/news/story/2016-07-07/live-updates-fallout-from-chilcot-inquiry/#

More revelations are in Chapter 5 of Belfast to Benghazi.

 

Working with ITN today analysing and commenting on the Chilcot Report.

The Government could and should have replaced Snatch with Mastiff at least one year before it did.

Silence at 7.28 a.m. to remember the casualties of the Somme.  Especially those of the 38th Welsh Division at Mametz Wood where my 26 year old grandfather served as a doctor on the front line.

My poppy lines the route with the following dedication:

Through the Slime

Across the Wire

They Struggle and Fall

And Give their All

Terrors in Mind

 

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

Discussing the Prime Minister’s announcement about increasing Britain’s contribution to Operation Sophia.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b07crvzd/newsnight-27052016

 

This Sunday is the International Day of Peacekeepers and tomorrow at the Cenotaph, we will honour the memory of 3,400 military, civilians and police, who have lost their lives whilst serving in UN peacekeeping missions.

On 25th May 1995, the Bosnian war re-ignited as 60 people were killed in Tuzla in an artillery attack.  Subsequently two French soldiers serving with the UN were killed in the Battle of Vrbanja Bridge and I had to take over responsibility for Jelah after the Devonshire and Dorset Regiment redeployed to central Bosnia.   See Chapter 3 of Belfast to Benghazi for the full story of the transition from UN peacekeeping to NATO peace enforcement in 1995.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Belfast-Benghazi-Untold-Challenges-War/dp/1861515669/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1464202598&sr=8-1&keywords=belfast+to+benghazi