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Soldiers and what they do.

The incoming mortar shells exploded all around as the Devon and Dorset Regiment raced up the hill; then the noise of exploding mortars was complimented by the sound of machine guns and everyone fell to the floor for shelter; several were injured, some were killed.

'Keep your head down lad;' I spoke to a young soldier who had jumped beside me on the floor. He looked at me with his wild, scared eyes that flitted from me to the surrounding area. Within moments the command to advance was issued, and remaining at my position on the ground, I watched as that young soldier stood up and continued with his company into the darkness and his unknown future.

I do not know who that soldier was, but I had seen the fear and uncertainty in his eyes, yet here he was following the call to battle.

Why was he here?

In this particular instance he was here protecting a British Colony from an invader; he was following his orders has a British soldier in the defence of his country.

When you defend your homeland or provinces, the action can be acceptable, because that is what soldiers do, defend their homeland; but when soldiers become engaged in foreign wars, battles that will have no bearing on the welfare of their country, then their purposes and reasons change.

During the invasion of Iraq in 2003, the British soldiers had no thought for liberation, civil order or right; soldiers follow orders and the better soldier you are, the more orders you will follow; and how you carry out these orders reflects on you as a soldier.

The Iraq war was a strategic military operation for the advancement of American Imperial power in the Middle East, and the lap dog British Government went along with a lie that would haunt them over the following years, and which is still a topic for debate. Justice still needs to be served and those responsible, whoever they are, should be handed over to the Iraqi women who lost their children. (And I mean that literally).

Why, because this is not the way of soldiers; only politicians who manipulate the circumstances which lead to all out war. Then they leave it to the soldiers to sort out; if they win the battles, then their Governments can control both the oil and a corridor of the Middle East, which would further any designs against other Middle Eastern countries such as Iran.

The soldiers, who find themselves engaged in these deployments, do so because they were ordered by their Government. Soldiers have no right to formulate opinions,

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