"British soldier dies in Afghanistan blast" (BBC)

From the BBC, today, Sunday, the 2nd of May, 2010:

British soldier dies in Afghanistan blast.

The death takes the number of British troops killed in Afghanistan to 282.

A British soldier has died in an explosion in southern Afghanistan, the Ministry of Defence said. The soldier, from 1st Battalion The Mercian Regiment serving with 40 Commando Royal Marines Battle Group, was killed on Sunday. He died near PB Waterloo military base in Sangin, Helmand Province. His next of kin have been informed. He is the 282nd member of the British military to be killed in Afghanistan since operations began in 2001. Task Force Helmand spokesman Lieutenant Colonel James Carr-Smith said: "He was providing protection to his fellow soldiers who were returning from a patrol when tragically he was killed in an explosion. "He will be greatly missed and his actions will not be forgotten." The last soldier to be killed in Afghanistan was Fusilier Jonathan Burgess, of 1st Battalion The Royal Welsh who died in the Nad Ali area of Helmand on 7 April. Fusilier Burgess, 20, from Swansea, was shot during a fire fight while on patrol aimed at disrupting insurgents.

Go to -

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/8656978.stm

I say, loud and clear: "Bring our boys home now!"

I said the following in a letter addressed to Mr James Paice, M.P., almost two years ago:

"The news from Afghanistan of three more British deaths is profoundly saddening and worrying. I recall President Bush (the idiot who can't even pronounce the word 'nuclear' properly) declaring, after what the Americans call "9/11," that he/they/we were 'gonna smoke him [Osama bin Laden] out.' I supported the intention of doing that but bin Laden hasn't been found, let alone been 'smoked out,' after nearly seven years. It appears to me that the time has come for us to draw a line under a disaster and to tell Mr Bush that one hundred British lives lost is enough. The British Empire (which I still hanker for) failed to tame the Afghans, the Soviet Empire admitted defeat at their hands and still we think that we can succeed where others failed and fell. If I thought that there was still a possibility of 'smoking out' Mr bin Laden, I would support as stoutly as anyone the continuing sacrifices of ourselves and the Americans. But I can't help thinking that 'special forces' might have more success than our armies and that the latter should be withdrawn forthwith."