Accused soldiers

SIR – Johnny Mercer (Comment, February 12) exposes the lack of leadership by the Ministry of Defence when it came to protecting soldiers who were wrongly accused of bad deeds in Iraq.

Civil servants, politicians and their ilk in the MoD are civilians, and may not feel much responsibility towards accused soldiers. The generals and other officers, who do have such a responsibility, are far more at fault in their reluctance to offer support.

At officer training school at Sandhurst, the motto was: Serve to Lead. Unfortunately, it seems that many senior officers would rather sacrifice these responsibilities in favour of their own prospects. Major John Rylands (retd) London SW11