Don’t send in the army to do the police’s job – they’re not the same
Although I can understand Malcolm Garbutt’s sentiment (Send in the Army, November 26), experience shows us this never ends well for our soldiers.
Even when they were burning down
London as they seem to do periodically, there’s never a soldier in sight nor are the police equipped with the tools deployed in Northern Ireland for many years during ‘The Troubles’. It would seem it’s okay for one set of British citizens to be subjected to riot control equipment but not okay for others, it’s no wonder the Irish are bitter.
We sent our soldiers to Northern Ireland in a peace-keeping role at the request of the Nationlist minority because they feared what the Unionist majority would do to them. Now 40 years later on they are hounding and prosecuting old men because some idiots expected them to be auxiliary policemen when the reality is they are first and foremost soldiers.
Using troops as cops was something that was shown to be a bad mistake when the Parachute Regiment opened fire on demonstrators on Bloody Sunday. Who in their right mind sends in ‘shock troops’ to play at being policemen?
The exact same thing has happened to our soldiers who have served in Afghanistan, the Gulf War and Iraq, so I’m afraid Malcolm’s suggestion to deploy soldiers as police backup on UK streets against drunks and criminals, and even drunken criminals, would only put them in jeopardy of litigation by the low-life legal firms who see the money to be made from persecuting our soldiers. We should all feel ashamed because we lie peacefully in our beds at night courtesy of those who are prepared to fight, kill and even die for us.
Tom Gardiner Gosport