Nice to see an integrated approach to UK operations in Afghanistan…
When I asked the men of 3 Para what their first tour had achieved, they all fell silent. “It was very frustrating,” said [Major Paul] Blair. He believes that his men could have achieved something in the town of Gereshk, where they were first based, had they been given the funds and authority.
“I kept having meetings with local officials saying we were there to bring security and reconstruction. I’d say the same thing week after week, but then never deliver more than school packs. I felt I was giving them false promises,” he said.
He recalled visiting the local hospital, where the bedding was “filthy”, and coming across a washing machine donated by a US charity that was still in its plastic wrapping. It could not be plumbed in because there was no water supply.
Blair suggested sinking a well but the Department for International Development said that this could be done only by civilians. Because of the security problems, no aid agency had been in the area for years. “Fora couple of hundred bucks,” said Blair, “we could have given them something they could have used there and then – but we weren’t allowed to.”
