Another side to war story

From the archive, first published Wednesday 28th Sep 2005.

I FEEL obliged to point out some omissions in the article "Now that was our brave boy," published in the Adver, Sep 22.

I understand that a local newspaper will want to write a positive human interest story about a local person but this article almost read like a MoD press release.

No mention of the nature of the top-secret mission that the SAS men were carrying out when arrested by the Iraqi police, disguised as Arabs, in a vehicle loaded with weapons and explosives.

If they were Arabs and had been stopped by UK or US soldiers, no doubt we would have been told that they were insurgents or terrorists .

And if they had been detained by UK or US soldiers, would you have described them as hostages?

No mention of the Iraqi policeman they shot dead when stopped and the other Iraqis killed in the ensuing battle. No mention of Basra city council's demand for the SAS men to be handed back to the Iraqi police for interrogation, or of the shocking fact that the occupying troops are immune from prosecution by the forces of law and order in the country that they are supposedly protecting.

Remind me again why our soldiers are in Iraq?

Oh I remember, they're providing security until the Iraqi security forces are ready to take over, by shooting their policemen and driving tanks through the walls of their prisons.

This incident surely demonstrates that peace and democracy cannot be imposed at gunpoint.

Bring Philip Tollafield and his colleagues home now before anyone else is killed, and spend the war chest on something useful.

S BRIDEWELL

Swindon

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