Soldiers who allegedly injured Iraqis, damaged police property and allowed convicts to escape should be tried according to Iraqi law. The remaining forces should be withdrawn immediately, before this illegal occupation descends into further bloodshed.

NICK MEGORAN
Cambridge

From Lieutenant-Colonel Peter Haldane (retd)

Sir, The Defence Secretary said on the BBC Today programme that we’re going to leave Iraq when the democratically elected Government is prepared to take on responsibility for security and asks us to go.

Perhaps someone in the Ministry of Defence should remind the Secretary of State or the Prime Minister about Aden in the 1960s and our efforts to establish reliable trained security forces there in the form of the police and the Federation Regular Army. Both were infiltrated by terrorist organisations, and it ended in the murder of British servicemen, ignominious withdrawal and violent revolutionary takeover.

How will our exit from Iraq be different, exactly?

PETER HALDANE
Hatfield Peverel, Essex

From Mr Mike Abbott

Sir, What were two British soldiers doing in Arabic garb working undercover in Iraq? The British have no right being in Iraq in the first place.

An illegal invasion, thousands dead, and now we have British soldiers behaving as if they’re in a 1950s Boy’s Own comic strip. We’re in the sick, sad mess of Iraq because of a political ignoramus in Washington and a political opportunist in Downing Street.

MIKE ABBOTT
Kew, Surrey

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