As for you John,. whoever you are, you completely misunderstand me. We obviously need the ability to defend ourselves and help in defence of other peoples' freedoms when they can't do it themselves. But, far too often, that isnt what happens, is it? We didnt go Iraq to protect Iraqis. We went there to protect US and UK interests. We were perfectly happy to back Saddam despite his evil deeds when he was on "our" side and fought Iran. And Alan, the moral high ground is not farcical, although the idea of Chirac and Putin occupying it certainly is. They're sleazy chancers. And armed policemen are totally different. The police force needs armed response units, or they can't do their job. And by and large they do it well as a last resort. Policing is totally different from soldiering, as we saw in Northern Ireland. If Ulster had been treated as a policing job rather than a military job and we'd concentrated on straightening out the RUC in the 60s and 70s, then we would not have had 1000s of dead there over the next 30 years. Bloody sunday would never had been a massacre if there had been a decent unbiased police force on the gorund. Instead, you take Paras who are trained to kill and throw them in with inevitable results. Their training kicks in and there is a massacre.

Please supply an email address so we can contact you and give a brief explanation of why this comment violates the Terms Of Use:
Email Address:

Reason: