It’s no secret that I hold politicians in general in contempt – they’re a bunch of parasites who produce nothing yet exercise control over as much as possible.

But recent remarks by Quentin Davies, MP (that’s Member Of Parliament in the UK) have me sickened to my stomach and wondering just how low into the depths of cowardice and buck-passing Brit politicians can sink.

As background: Major Sebastian Morley was a commander in the Special Air Service (SAS), an unfortunately publicly well known special operations regiment of the British Army (AKA Hooligans from Hereford).

Marjor Morley resigned from the Regiment while in Afghanistan recently, in a letter quoted by The Daily Telegraph newspaper in the UK he is reported to have accused the UK Government of being “Cavalier at best, criminal at worst” in regards to equipping UK forces over there – in particular the lightly armoured “Snatch Land Rovers”.

Now, the SAS aren’t like most troops – they’re used to making do with what they have, improvising adapting and overcoming any obstacle in the most ingenious ways possible (and yes, I’m complimenting Hooligans – I claim temporary insanity).

So for an SAS officer to quit because the equipment supplied, “Mobile Coffins” as troops deployed to Iraq call them, is inadequate is astounding – these are people who make MacGyver look lost.

Quentin Davies however, as the defence and equipment minister, seems to not have any inkling of just how bad things have to be for a Hooligan to call it quits.

But worse is his apparent attempt, like any “good” politician, to totally refuse any possibility of responsibility, instead attempting to shift the blame onto commanders.

Yes, this jumped up public school snob who has never done anything in life other than be a diplomatic flunky then a politician has the balls, the sheer gall, to actually start throwing out accusations blaming actual fighting men of being irresponsible and culpable for the deaths of British troops through implied incompetence, totally ignoring any accusations they’re dying because of shit kit.

In doing so, I believe Quentin Davies has betrayed every man and woman who serves faithfully in the British armed forces.  This martinet with the power to help equip troops to keep them alive, when a respected fighting man is forced to resign in protest at the incompetant and cavalier attitude of these puffed up civil servants, resorts to blaming it on the commanders??

And like most politicians, Quentin Davies essentially betrays those fighting men with ambiguous comments that are designed solely to obfuscate the issue.  Let’s look at the ones reported for a moment:

“The idea that we have been cavalier with soldiers’ lives is horrific”.

Well yes, it is – but this isn’t a denial that the UK Government has been cavalier – or criminal.

“I recently visited Afghanistan, and 100 per cent of those I asked said they were now satisfied with their equipment.”

And how many people did he actually ask?  How many of them were troops with mud on their boots?  How many were officers faced with a pompous snob minister and said what would preserve their careers – given the way Quentin Davies shunted the blame squarely on commanders, does anyone believe he might not be a petty vindictive bastard as well who would destroy the career of anyone who dares to give him a reality check?

The BBC report goes on to state:

However he said the idea the Ministry of Defence was “indifferent” to the need to get the right kit into theatre was a “travesty of reality that it is actually quite difficult to take this at first face value”.

A travesty of reality might be calling it indifferent, yes.  How does “apathetic” sound?  “Callous”?  “Blind”? “In denial”?  “Controlled by a politician who has no fucking clue what’s actually needed to begin with”?

Those may actually be closer to reality – but we won’t know, because Quentin Davies is so sublimely convinced of his own knowledge as some REMF ponce stuck in Whitehall that a land rover with paper thin armour is actually sufficient to protect troops from EFPs and IEDs, enough that he’ll totally brush aside the concerns of an SAS commander and lump the blame entirely on the commanders?

He said, given the nature of war, “there may be occasions when in retrospect a commander chose the wrong piece of equipment, the wrong vehicle, for the particular threat that the patrol or whatever it was encountered and we had some casualties as a result”.

What

The

Fuck?

Just what reality is this idiot living in?  Oh yeah, I forgot, he’s a politician, reality is a tenuous concept at best for them – but this?  This is beyond the pale!

It might help if commanders in the field actually had the right kit to assign to begin with – that’s Quentin Davies’ job.  But that might require actually taking responsibility for the laundry list of deaths and injuries caused to British troops who have been inadequately supplied by a minister who seems more interested in lumping the blame on commanders without even bothering to investigate the claims behind a warrior feeling his honour leaves him no choice but to resign his commission, walk away from his people, and make it all public.

I realize politicians rarely understand loyalty (Quentin Davies certainly doesn’t appear to, defecting from the Conservatives to the same Labour Party he condemned two years prior), but is there anyone at this idiot’s ministry that can understand just how desperate things must be for a Hooligan to quit and kick up a stink about shit kit?

Aircraft without fire suppression systems in the fuel tanks, inadequate and not enough body armour, vehicles that can’t stop more than a rifle bullet in an AO rife with high explosives, insufficient air transport options … I believe Quentin Davies is the minister in charge of the department responsible for all of this – but I guess the men and women of the British armed forces can forget him actually doing something about these and other matters.

Because according to his comments above, it’s not his fault, it’s the fault of the commanders for not being able to MacGyver their way out of his arrogance.

I’m curious, Quentin Davies.  When you visited Afghanistan, and 100% of the people you spoke to said they were satisfied with their kit, did you land in a -130 with or without fire suppression systems?  Did you get ferried around in one of the few Chinooks in theater?  I bet you sure as fuck didn’t go driving around in a snatch land rover.

If you have faith that British troops are properly and safely equipped and protected, then let’s see that confidence, let’s see you go for a drive out in the middle of nowhere in a snatch land rover, let’s see you land in theater in one of the -130’s being used there by the rest of the troops, let’s see you use the body armour they’re equipped with – and have to queue to get it like everyone else.

Excuse me if I don’t hold my breath.

Is Quentin Davies a traitor?  We’ll only find out when it’s determined if shit kit is responsible for the death of servicemembers.

I only hope that some day there will be an investigation into all these issues, and when the results come out Quentin Davies is put up against a wall for the lives lost because of his arrogance.

Additional Links

• SAS commander quits 'over kit'

  An SAS reservist commander in Afghanistan has resigned over what he calls "chronic underinvestment" in troops' equipment, reports say.

• Minister 'horrified' by SAS claim

  A minister has said he is "horrified" by accusations the government has been "cavalier" with soldiers' lives by not giving them proper equipment.