MY son is currently serving in Afghanistan with 2 Para, based in Kajaki. After the recent tragic deaths there, he was down, as he knew one of the casualties very well, and said morale was low in the camp. The soldiers also feel demoralised by all the negative comments and how people don’t understand why they are there. I find myself defending my son to family, friends and colleagues.

They are over there in the most awful conditions with little or no communication with home. At Kajaki they had two text machines to supply the whole base but these broke down a few weeks ago and they don’t know when, or if, they will get them back, so they rely on two ageing satellite phones costing £1 a minute, which constantly cut out (and cost a fortune to top up).

They are in temperatures of up to 53C in a dusty, rocky area with little or no basic washing facilities or any home comforts. But they believe they are doing a good job and making a difference.

I always read your reports on Afghanistan and have thought they were a fair and unbiased view of life over there, but the reasons we are there and the difference we are making need to be explained more.

Perhaps with media support we can educate the public, and our soldiers will feel that they are valued and can hold their head up high when back home.

Marian Deacon
West Molesey, Surrey

HEARTS AND MINDS: Field Marshal Montgomery in his memoirs writes that “if you win a soldier’s heart he will follow you anywhere”. General Sir Richard Dannatt has done just that by constantly lobbying on behalf of the soldiers he commands (Brown pulls rank to stop rebel general heading armed forces , News, last week).

How sad that this principled and courageous officer is now likely to be penalised for telling his political masters the uncomfortable truth and not what they would like to hear.

Jeremy Prescott (Lt Col ret’d)
Oadby, Leicester

BALANCING ACT: You quoted a senior army officer in the defence ministry thus: “By cleaning house and putting a new team under [Air Chief Marshal Sir Jock] Stirrup, the prime minister gets a new group of senior officers who will be too busy trying to climb the greasy pole to rock the boat.” This sounds like a performance more suited to Harold Lloyd or Charlie Chaplin than elderly gentlemen. A candidate for the best mixed metaphor?

Robert Sanders
Crieff, Perthshire

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