Whatever we might think of the rights and wrongs of the operational demands of the conflict in Iraq, there are human responses which serving officers and soldiers cannot become involved in. We are both civilians and soldiers and we have a duty to do as ordered. That does not mean that we cannot feel that there are certain rights and wrongs, which are an issue for all of us. We have arrived in Iraq not to kill Iraqi’s, but to clear the country of those Iraqis who would wage war on their own people and upon those who have been sent into Iraq to free the Iraqi people from a tyrannical rule. We all hear stories in the media of what Saddam Hussein did; we even see the videos of the worst crimes committed against innocent people over many years. For us to become this acclimatised to what has been happening in the world is a worry. For my children to grow up without the sight of such horrors will be a duty I will gladly undertake. There are concerns, there are worries, but they are the concerns of governments and the issues for the people who should have a voice to be heard. For us, soldiers in Iraq, it is our duty to uphold the best traditions of democracy we know everyone is entitled to, and yet proud to be a part of arguably the finest Army in the world just doing its job.
