Outside the Joint Support Unit HQ here stands a cross rising from a mound of cobbles. On each of the four sides of the mound is set a brass plate for the names of those British soldiers who have died in Afghanistan. The second of the four plates is almost full. At the precise moment that we walk past it, the Union flag is being adjusted to half-mast — the 96th man has just died, killed by a mine. The CO has told us that the camp will take from seven to ten years to complete. So, at the present rate of death, by then the memorial will need at least eight plates — for which there is no room. Although the camp is well organised and neat, the place is unutterably bleak. The landscape has almost no features at all. ‘The lone and level sands stretch far away.’
Our little party, led by Andrew Mitchell, the shadow secretary for International Development, is trying to find out what is happening in Afghanistan.
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