Risk your life, then face jail for doing so!
My soldier son and his fellow officers weren’t the kind of bone-headed idiots who joyously marched off to World War i, but graduate entrants, well aware of the iraq War’s dodgy legality.
They went to fight yet another dirty little war at the behest of a Prime Minister they didn’t trust with rotten kit supplied by a Chancellor intent on running the invasion on the cheap. Political incompetence of truly enormous proportions made a shambles of post-war iraq and set fire to the islamic crescent, leaving our soldiers trying to contain the mess.
Valid accusations of human rights abuse must be dealt with, but it should be done quickly, and it’s deplorable the creators of this chaos have swanned off into the sunset.
Rev Dr J. CAMERON, St Andrews, Fife.
Why is Blair off the hook?
our politicians got us involved in a war, which most people didn’t want, on the pretext of ‘weapons of mass destruction’. Now money-grabbing lawyers want our soldiers to stand trial. if that happens before Tony Blair is charged with war crimes, i hope the whole population rises up in protest.
The lawyers have been waiting since 2010 to get this particular gravy train moving, lining up their ‘witnesses’ to substantiate claims of war crimes committed by our lads. What proof have they? of what value are these ‘witnesses’?
How many are family members of the supposed victims? What credence can be given to people whom you couldn’t trust even when they were supposedly on our side and being trained by us? some turned their guns on our troops.
There might have been a few bad apples in our Army, but we forget too easily that we were at war and civilians sometimes get hurt. As for the bad apples, let the military handle them in its own way.
The very idea that the Ministry of defence is paying to dig up information on our soldiers infuriates me. We’ve paid out £20 million or so to claimants so far — is there no end to this folly?
We seem to be a country of contradictions these days: to think we can even talk about prosecuting our Army lads while we still aren’t bringing charges against the bankers who brought this country to its knees defies belief. let’s hear the people of the uK speak out and let’s tell these lawyers to get back in their box.
JAMES MUIR, Rayleigh, Essex.
Pilots beware
if oNly the Government were as keen to deal with those threatening this country as it is in pursuing soldiers it deploys to carry out its inane foreign policies.
i hope the rAf pilots currently bombing syria and iraq, and those who operated over libya, have been indemnified against prosecution.
C. NEWTON, Irthlingborough, Northants.
Betraying our Forces
iT’s time our politicians, especially david Cameron, recognised that Britain relies on its Armed forces to carry out a role as dictated by Parliament. All too often our soldiers face enemies who don’t recognise the Geneva Convention, and situations can arise which outsiders might find unacceptable.
our military services have disciplinary procedures of their o wn, and provided legal representation for the accused is made where requested, they should operate them without interference by politicians.
if Parliament continues to allow accusations for so- called historic maltreatment to be pursued by ambulance- chasing lawyers, how can Cameron and his cronies expect those troops to perform effectively — or even be prepared to go into war zones? LIONEL GOOCH,
Poole, Dorset.
An insult to the dead
My THANKs go to those offering support for our Armed forces against their harassment by our legal system in trying to prosecute them for alleged war crimes.
only in the uK would we do this: in most counties they would be lauded as heroes.
These lawyers who have never seen action or seen friends killed and maimed re pulse me. My son-in-law, a royal electrical and Mechanical engineer, did a ten-month tour of Afghanistan, where he lost many friends. He says these investigations are an insult to their memory. DAVID K. T. DAVIES,
Abertillery, Gwent.
No recruits? Surprised?
iT’s no wonder our Government is struggling to get recruits for our Armed forces.
Two aircraft carriers are being built for the royal Navy, but we are so short of men and women, we’re asking other countries to help man them. our soldiers and sailors are trained to kill when necessary and put their lives on the line to carry out orders to defend our country.
But by doing so, many come home limbless and traumatised and are i gnored when t hey become homeless, though the authorities are busy finding h o mes for migrants.
We, as a nation, should either support our Armed forces properly or disband them and try to run the country without them.
We should also disband the ever-growing firms of lawyers who have no respect for our country or those who defend it. They are an utter disgrace and need naming and shaming. BARRINGTON THOMPSON,
ex-RN, Portimao, Portugal.
So much for legal ‘elite’
THAT our Government allows the persecution of our troops so long after the event while doing nothing about Tony Blair, the person directly responsible for the iraq War, is appalling.
The behaviour of our so- called ‘legal elite’ in encouraging foreigners to start proceedings against our military and grabbing legal aid meant for uK citizens is also terrible.
The law society of Bell yard should do something about the shiner family law practice, which has started so many dubious claims. IAN IRVINE,
Suffolk.
Make politicians pay
if BriTisH rank-and-file soldiers are to face iraq war crime charges, surely the politicians and the officer ranks must accept responsibility for failing adequately to train and supervise those soldiers?
if the politicians entered a conflict without ensuring the military could comply with the Geneva convention, then they and senior officers, if they were at fault, should personally foot the cost of investigations, trials and of any compensation paid.
This might make politicians think more carefully before entering into a conflict and of making cuts to military training and supervision.
But t he biggest change, if politicians were to foot compensation payments personally, would be the end of the human rights and compensation cultures which allow some quite ugly people with law degrees to get rich at the taxpayer’s expense.
JOHN ALLISON, Maidenhead, Berks.
Humiliating lunacy
THreATeNiNG to charge war veterans as war criminals won’t do much for Army recruitment and will make us all feel insecure.
Whose idea was it to spend public money on the lunacy of humiliating men and women of whom we should be proud and to whom we should be grateful f or being prepared to lay down their lives to protect us?
BRIAN LYNCH, Brentwood, Essex.