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| Afghanistan | |
| Lack of radios led to Dutch casualties in Afghanistan ? | |
| 2008-01-16 | |
| The military union ACOM says that a lack of radio equipment probably played a role in the death of two Dutch soldiers in the Afghan province of Uruzgan last weekend, the NOS reports. Union chairman Jan Kleian said on Tuesday that he had warned some time ago that soldiers were complaining about a shortage of headsets used for communication with colleagues. Broken equipment has reportedly not been replaced over the past months, Kleian said. The Defence department said in a reaction that Kleian's comments are "unethical" and "premature."
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| Posted by:lotp |
| #5 In a reaction the Commander of those troops said they have enough radios. |
| Posted by: Gletch Turkeyneck9242 2008-01-16 12:06 |
| #4 The military unions are pretty practical though. They have no say over military or political matters. They try to make sure that troops are send out with the best possible equipment, that the families of soldiers are taken care of, veteran support programs are being implemented by Defense. Stuff like that. Personally I find that people (especially someone from a union) should shut up untill an investigation has been completed. There could be dozens of different reasons for this incident. Fog of war being one of the most common one, in a nightime battle in bad weather stuff can easily go wrong that would not normally go wrong. |
| Posted by: Henk 2008-01-16 09:11 |
| #3 The Defence department said in a reaction that Kleian's comments are "unethical" and "premature." Not to mention politically embarassing. ...and probably true. |
| Posted by: tu3031 2008-01-16 09:02 |
| #2 They've been unionized for about 25 years now. |
| Posted by: Fred 2008-01-16 08:56 |
| #1 "military union"? WTF? |
| Posted by: gromky 2008-01-16 02:09 |