A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH www.thisisstaffordshire.co.uk 10th February 2005 The sight this week of the body of Fazeley man Bob O' Connor being flown back from Iraq was a very sobering one indeed. As our readers will know, Sergeant O'Connor lost his life along with a number of his comrades when his RAF Hercules plane went down in Iraq two weeks ago. His tragic death helped to serve as a reminder to us all that while people can sit in the comfort of their armchairs here debating the wrongs and rights of going to war in the first place, people are still dying out there on a daily basis.

I thought about this whole issue in more depth on Monday when I saw a BBC1 programme which followed UK soldiers operating in Iraq. This particular episode showed an impressive man who was training willing Iraqis to be new border police. He was very moved and inspired by the whole experience because he actually felt he was doing some good and helping people to make the most of their new found liberation. For him the politics were irrelevant - he just had a job to do and orders to follow and he just got on with doing it to the very best of his ability.

Politicians start and end wars, we, the public, debate the merits or otherwise of them, but we must never forget it is our servicemen who live at the 'coal face' and have to do our nation's bidding. Their role, as such, must always be respected whenever we debate these highly sensitive issues.

The tragedy last week highlights again that for our servicemen and women out there, this is not just a political debate it is quite literally a matter of life and death.

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