Welcome Home

On Tuesday, 200 soldiers from the 2nd Batallion Royal Anglian Regiment, newly returned from Iraq, marched through the streets of Luton, a town at the centre of much of the Anglian Regiment's recruitment. The home-coming parade was intended as a morale booster and they were cheered through the streets by flag waving locals who did at least appreciate what the soldiers had been doing during two tours of duty in that war torn country. Many of those cheering did not and still do not agree with our involvement in either Iraq or Afghanistan but that is a matter of politics. The soldiers were men doing their jobs. All too often they have been used as political tools by Blair and Brown anxious to curry favour with the nasty regime of George W Bush - and that is another reason why we should support our soldiers. They deserve the utmost respect and appreciation for what they have tried to do, to the best of their ability on every occasion in Iraq and Afghanistan. Often they have been badly equipped to the point where individuals have even been killed as a direct result of inadequate equipment. While the government ponders the possibility of building a pair of the biggest aircraft carriers we will ever have owned - the exact purpose of these ships remains a mystery - the army is lacking much essential modern field equipment; eg communications equipment, good reliable armoured vehicles, ammunition, boots even.

But not everyone wanted to welcome the soldiers back home. A demonstration was mounted - complete with police guard - by a group of militant Muslims who shouted insults and displayed placards that attacked the men as "Anglian Soldiers Butchers of Basra" Some of these men - accompanied by women fully covered in black - displayed faces contorted with madness and rage as they shouted their words of contempt. The gathering was organised by an extreme Muslim fundamentalist organisation - it is not entirely clear exctly which one. One of the men involved in this nasty demonstration, a man named Jalal Ahmed, works, apparently, as a baggage handler at Luton Airport and so has a pass that allows him to go airside and handle baggage that is being loaded into aircraft. How incompetent can the management of this country become? Here we have a man with Islamic fundamentalist tendencies who may have connections with extreme terrorism and has, allegedly, been properly vetted for security, yet he is allowed near aircraft with bags of luggage. Have we gone totally mad? This ridiculous government has introduced numerous restrictions including the promise of ID cards and national data bases in order to fight terrorism, yet they cannot even organise simple tasks like making efficient checks on very obvious potential trouble makers. It is bizarre.

No doubt we will be told constantly that these demonstrations and blatant anti-British feelings only represent a tiny minority. I hope that this is the truth but I am sceptical. Religious doctrines can be impregnated into young minds with little regard for truth or reality and can create conflict in any society. All too many of these young men spend time in Pakistan or Afghanistan learning about Islam and a nihilistic attitude to Western society. To understand the potential for conflict, we only have to look at the tragedy that is Northern Ireland, a society riven by conflict between Catholic and Protestant. We were told, and we still are told, that the troubles were caused by tiny minorities but it was never so simple. The country is still divided even after 10 years of the so called "Peace Process". Catholics and Protestants do not mix; often they are divided by brick walls and high fences. Sure, everyone will come out and in some way condemn the latest killings but Catholics will shelter one group of militants and Protestants will shelter others. They are all complicit in the chaos and slaughter. The attitude of government to Islamic militancy is guided more by wishful thinking and political correctness than any contact with reality. But it is ever thus,

The soldiers got a much better reception in Watford on Wednesday and I hope that they will realise that most of us do appreciate what they have been doing.