Veteran attacks Britains involvement in "Two disasterous wars"

Former SAS trooper Ben Griffin spoke to thousands of people who had gathered in Trafalgar Square determined to march on Parliament. Having initially tried to ban the march using a piece of victorian legislation the government were forced to retreat. The demonstration was called by Stop the War Coalition and CND.

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They told us they are going to pay us a month in advance & that’s about £750 for recruits but there will be some deductions. First accommodation, food, tax, national insurance & some other bits & pieces after which you will have £250. Then we have to buy our regimental tracksuits £50, then they said we have to pay for laundry & recreational facilities for the entire 6 month training period £170. Leaving us with £70. Wooo!
Letter from trainee recruit to his mother

 It is hard for me as I am against this war in Iraq & Afghanistan, with every bone in my body. Many many innocent Iraqi men women & children have died. Their crime. Living in a country that has oil.
This is a fact. A proven fact.

The Iraq war has produced  the biggest number of military deaths since Vietnam for American soldiers & our British death toll is rising higher & higher. Afghanistan will serve to see a huge impact on that death toll. My son could so easily be one of them.

 Today I received my first letter from my baby boy. He is tired & sore but in high spirits. There was a down moment though & this in his words is it.

"So far I have had lessons in law, hygiene, infantry structure, basic weapon skills, drill, admin & my favourite money. Mum listen to this…
 

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I could have stayed on there for another six months, we would have been able to defend ourselves, and killed a lot of people in the process, but what would that have achieved?
Lt-Col Patrick Sanders, Commanding officer, 4 rifles battle group

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"The best thing they can do now is get all the troops out of Iraq. They shouldn't have been there in the first place. It was never our war, it was America's war, and was all about oil."
Pat Long - son killed in Iraq, 2003

The 550 soldiers are handing the palace over to Iraqi control and joining the remaining 5,000 troops at the last British base near Basra Airport.
The handover of Basra itself is now expected in the autumn.

But Pat Long, whose 24-year-old son Paul was killed in Iraq in 2003, found nothing to celebrate in the news. The 55-year-old, from Bamford Walk, South Shields, said: "They have left it all far too late, this should have happened at long time ago.

"The best thing they can do now is get all the troops out of Iraq. They shouldn't have been there in the first place. "It was never our war, it was America's war, and was all about oil."

Mrs Long, who has two other children, is also fearful that many of the troops will now be deployed in Afghanistan.

She said: "They're just going to be sent from one war zone to another."

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James was a changed man when he came home – angry, racist about Iraqis and shut off from family and friends. After two months he broke down. He had been ordered to fire on a crowd that would not disperse and one of his shots had killed a child.

On 24th July, Dani Hamilton gave us a shocking and heartfelt insight into the meaning of the Iraq war for soldiers and their families.

Dani had relatives in the forces and had signed the papers for her son James to join up at the age of 16.  She had watched her son change from a loving, caring person into a machine, broken and remoulded by the army.

When two years later he was sent to Iraq, she looked into the background and decided as so many of us did that this was an illegal war, but for her this was not a question of politics but of daily fear for her son. 

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