Firstly I will adress Mr Clandestine

In essence I agree with what you are saying and also that your goverment is not realy representive of your country.
I also agree that given the situation (war is a messy business) any help is better than no help
However
In the UK there are a pool of donors who have all been checked so that in an emrgency situation we can call upon them to donate what is known to be safe blood and given the population of the states I would've expected the military to implement the same type of thing as the UK has.
I am astounded that the US military would allow this sort of thing to happen to thier allies given that (to my knowledge) they made sure the blood given to US troops WAS checked.

40 oz

You are dead right in your observation that Brit troops (or any troops for that matter) go where they are told to go and do not have a choice. Saying to your commanding officer "Sorry sir but I realy don't want to go to Afghanistan" doesn't realy work. Once you sign up you go where you are told no questions asked and you can't think like a civvy who can just walk out of a job they don't like. Try walking out of the British army and they send big hairy arsed MP's (with weapons) after you and then you get courtmatialed for desertion.