Other bad news for the Labour Party concerns the number of casualties in Helmand: even higher than the number of those killed.
More than 157 soldiers were treated at the field hospital at Camp Bastion in Helmand province last week, according to army medics. Numbers were so high that medics have been forced to break their own rules by accepted more wounded than the hospital is designed to take.
"The last few weeks have been an extremely busy period. There have been injuries like you've probably never seen or experienced," one medic told BBC Radio 4's Today programme, referring to the horrific wounds explosions roadside bombs can inflict.
The latest figures officially published by the Ministry of Defence reveal a significant increase in the number of wounded even before the latest fighting, which has produced the highest recorded so far. Forty-six soldiers were admitted to field hospitals in Afghanistan in June, compared with 24 in May and 11 in April. The figures are to some extent seasonal, they were higher last summer than in the winter.
Shane McGowan referred to the wounded as 'forgotten heroes of a forgotten war', and more soldiers now survive in a mutilated form than heretofore due to improvements in battlefield medicine. The casualty figures and disfigured futures present another testament to the consequences of under-resourcing..