Troops out - but not because the top brass say so

I agree with the protesters in Manchester last month and with UNISON policy against the Iraq war and that it has been a humanitarian disaster. But why am I uncomfortable with a senior army officer speaking out against Government policy?

Of course the political fault lies with the politicians who backed the war – and the solution is to replace them with consistent opponents of the war (as well as to withdraw the troops). We don’t need to be led by someone who backed the war to save his job.

The Government and Parliament are at fault for taking us into an unlawful war and we need to keep up the pressure on them to bring the troops home now.

But somehow I don’t like to see paid officials trying to dictate policy to elected representatives (particularly not, I suppose, if they are in a military uniform…)