Not very helpful
Sir: As a lawyer and former regular soldier, I found Max Hastings' reply (Letters, 20 November) to Mark Urban's intelligent piece (No room for the mad squads', 12 November) not only unhelpful but even sin- ister.
Having begun so reasonably by admitting that soldiers must abide by the Geneva Convention or face judicial consequences, he then seems to distance himself from that thesis, pointing to Bomber Harris, to 'hun- dreds if not thousands of Allied soldiers' whom he alleges breached the rules of war, and to the 'ghastly moral equivalence of war' lacking peacetime 'moral absolutes'.
Then comes an unworthy smear against the author of the revelations about the Falklands war and a spurious argument running along the lines of 'what about them on t'other side then?', as if that were suffi- cient to erase any accusations that may be made against our own forces.
It is hardly a matter for shame when a country proves to itself and to the world that it has one of the great hallmarks of a just and free democracy, i.e., that its law enforcement and judicial systems are suffi- ciently free and independent to pursue a case against members of its own armed forces when there is a prima facie case to answer.
James Bogle
Hanover Chambers, Hanover Road, Royal Tunbridge Wells, Kent
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