A deliberate policy not to supply

Sgt Steven Roberts from Shipley, West Yorkshire, was the first British soldier to die in Iraq after a "friendly fire" incident at a check point in Iraq - link to story.

Its been a well stated fact since then that Sgt Roberts was not wearing his standard issue British Army body armour and that had he been doing so then he would have survived the single shot that killed him.

He was not wearing his regulation British Army body armour because it had been taken away from him by the British Army to be issued to front line combat troops who were complaining of shortages, in fact the British Army were light to the tune of 2000 pieces of personal body armour when they went into combat in Iraq.

Since that time there has of course been question after question as to how this could happen, how could the Ministry of Defence cock up so badly that they sent troops into conflict without the correct equipment and as we have come to expect from a government department there has been lots of smokescreens, finger pointing, bluff and bullshit.

Yesterday a coroner confirmed the fact that Sgt Roberts would have survived the shot that killed him had he been allowed to keep his own body armour and again he mentioned failures in the supply and aquisition chain at the MOD, in other words it was a clerical error, no-one to blame, lets close the case and put it down to red tape and civil service ineptitude - again.

But that is not quite the case.

In the article that I linked to Shadow Defence Secretary Dr Liam Fox is critical in that polite reporting style that only the BBC use, but in an interview on our local radio station this morning Liam Fox is far more damning.

He alledges that the shortages of equipment (and it wasn't just body armour) in the British Army at the time that they went into Iraq early in 2003 was nothing to do with a civil service cock-up, nor was it anythign to do with a lack of funds, in fact he emphasises that the MOD had plaenty of money available, and were willing to order lots and lots of body armour.

Liam Fox alledges that the reason that the shortages existed at that time was because a political decision had been taken at the highest level of government (ie Tony Blair and Geoff Hoon, Seceratary of State for Defence) in the autumn of 2002 not to be seen to be equiping for an invasion whilst they were supposed to be still exploring a diplomatic resolution - their deliberate delay made purely for political gain resulted in the death of Sgt Roberts six months later.

Liam Fox was far more insistant as to where the blame lies than he is in the polite BBC interview, he is not calling for resignations though, simply an acknowledgment that the men at the top of the tree made the wrong decision for their own political purposes and he is suggested that Tony Blair may like to spend his christmas day thinking of his culpability in Sgt Roberts death.

I wouldn't hold your breath for a result Liam.