British Army Arrived With Lofty Ideals; Four Years Later Basra Was A Dirty Word -- Times OnlineA single shot rang out in the fetid summer heat of the Basra night. The British crew of a stationary Warrior saw the sniper's distant muzzle flash and returned a few rounds. It seemed an insignificant moment in last year's fighting and soon they turned their attention to the sounds of larger gunbattles of a continuing operation.
So the soldiers did not realise that one bullet had passed through the gap in their driver's turret — raised a few inches to give him relief from the heat — and killed him. Private Craig Barber lay dead in his tiny compartment, the engine idling, for 15 minutes before his commander gave the order to move. It was only then, puzzled by his failure to respond, that his comrades discovered he was dead.
Craig Barber was the last soldier to be killed on an operation performed by the Basra Palace battle group last year before its withdrawal from the city a few weeks later in September. His lonely moment of death and the desperate fight that followed it symbolised the abandoned state of the last British units in the city.
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My Comment: The same mistakes that occurred in Basra are now occurring in Helmand Province, Afghanistan. The Brits are repeating history again.
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