Well I can only speak from my experience of having to deal with the British Army and that is to blame the lowest rank you can. There is a lot of spin put out by our government and that is to blame everyone but themselves. You send troops into a combat area then it doesn't matter whether it is a "safe" area or not you equip them for the worse case scenario.I am not a fan of Blair but I will be fair and my experience of Labour and Conservative governments is the same. I was an army wife when the Falklands War was on and we had to take out bank loans to make sure our husbands had the right equipment to take with them.There is an old adage (from WW1) here in Britain and that is our armed forces are Lions led by Donkeys I am afraid that not much has changed.Doesn't matter what political party is in charge they always manage to get the blame down to the lowest rank.I have watched the news and if my guess is correct they are lining up a sacrificial lamb. After having a long talk with Col Tim Collins recently I am afraid that whoever this poor officer is then he has been targeted as the official sacrifice. Here in the UK I believe the person responsible is Secretary of State for Defence let's just say the previous minister wasn't called Geoff "Teflon" Hoon for nothing so the buck has to stop with the current holder of the post Dr John Reid he of course will mange to come out smelling of roses.
Maureen