Bomb kills British soldier in Kabul

[dArKeR]

An explosion yesterday near the British base in the Afghan capital killed a British soldier and injured several, the deputy commander of the peacekeeping force said, while police said a suicide attack near the city injured five foreigners.

The nearly simultaneous attacks came during a memorial ceremony for a Canadian soldier killed in a suicide attack in Kabul just the day before. An Afghan civilian was also killed.

Yesterday, one British soldier was killed near their base, said Canadian Major General Andrew Leslie, deputy commander of the security force, speaking at the end of the memorial service at the Canadian base.

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2004/01/29/2003096627

[Hav]

1. ..

I haven't heard anything about these deaths in the news yet ( but maybe that's only me).
It's sad when incidents with "only" one or two deaths get nearly no media attention.

[iverglas]

2. Canadian media

CBC Newsworld (Canadian network, I doubt NWI in the US) had full coverage of the body of Cpl. Jamie Murphy arriving at Canadian Forces Base Trenton this morning. (I guess we're not too worried that publicizing military deaths will stir public opposition to what our military is doing, since the Canadian public broadly supports what our military does abroad, with good reason, and isn't so self-absorbed as to think that such deaths are all that matter or are what the correctness of our foreign policy should be measured by.)

http://www.cbc.ca/stories/2004/01/29/soldier040129

The 26-year-old Murphy, from Conception Harbour, Nfld., was killed by a suicide bomber on Tuesday while on patrol in an Iltis jeep near Kabul in Afghanistan.

Members of the family joined Prime Minister Paul Martin, Defence Minister David Pratt and Gen. Ray Henault, Chief of Defence Staff, in honouring the fallen soldier.

Martin and Pratt also greeted troops returning home from their tour as they descended from the plane that carried the casket. Martin was scheduled to speak later on Thursday with Murphy's mother.

Interesting that Martin was present. The families of the soldiers killed in Afghanistan a few weeks ago had requested that then-PM Chrétien stay away from the funerals, apparently in some sort of very misguided (right-wing) protest about what they viewed as inadequate equipment provided to the Cdn military in Afghanistan; as a citizen, I found it offensive that my head of government - representing me - was not welcome.

Anyhow, yes, it's sad when the deaths of Canadians and Brits in Afghanistan are not reported in the US. Canadians are in Afghanistan because of our commitment to global peacekeeping and democracy-building -- but also because the US just didn't have the resources to keep Afghanistan liberated while simultaneously liberating Iraq <need I add the sarcasm tags?> ... and we Canadians thereby have contributed to the bloody Iraq adventure, whether anyone likes it or not.

I don't think we need take any blame for that, since the value of our Afghanistan efforts stands alone and the relief the US military gained from them is not something we could have prevented, even had we not been wanting to suck back up a bit.

But one might think that anyone in the US who also believes that the liberation of Afghanistan was a worthwhile project would want to recognize those efforts perhaps just a tad more ... and those who believe that the liberation of Iraq was a good idea might want to take note of, and recognize, the indirect but very real Canadian contribution after being not at all hesitant to denounce our refusal to participate directly.


(typo edited)
.

[MaineDem]

3. We get NWI here on satellite

I'm so thankful for it and BBC America. It gives us a very different perspective.

May all the dead rest in peace.

[daleo]

4. It does seem like Afghanistan is heating up

Maybe in response to the planned spring offensive.