Soldier took overdose on eve of Iraq trip-'feared killing children'

[katty]

more:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=493690&in_page_id=1770

Soldier who took overdose on eve of Iraq trip 'feared having to shoot children'

Last updated at 15:16pm on 14th November 2007

A young soldier was so traumatised by the prospect of his first Iraqi posting, he took an overdose which killed him.

Private Jason Chelsea couldn't come to terms with the thought that he might have to "shoot children" carrying suicide bombs.

He was so afraid, on the eve of the tour of duty with the Duke of Lancaster's Regiment he took a lethal quantity of paracetamol and iron tablets.

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[Kashka-Kat]

1. This is the true measure of how unjust and completely wrong this war is

There are mistakes, atrocities, wrongful deaths & evil acts in any war, even the so called "good" war, WW2. If the cause is truly just then we decide we go ahead and fight the war anyway. This one however is SOOOOOO not worth it. And who better knows it than the soldiers going over...

[The Blue Flower]

2. What a horror

I wish the young man had simply been able to stand up and firmly say no. Court martial would have been far, far better than suicide.

[Briar]

3. Poor man

and evidently far too decent to have been persuaded he would be put in such a position by those who recruited and trained him. They seem to have utterly failed in their duty of care. But all soldiers run the risk of killing children, deliberately or not. In modern wars, it is inevitable that far more civilians die than combatants. Simple fact. Call in an air strike: obliterate a village. Sorry, compound, which seems to be the currently approved term. If only young people were aware of this before joining up. Of course, while they spend so much of their time on entertainment that portrays war as glorious, glamorous and concerned with blowing away demonic enemies, it is hardly surprising that they are deluded enough to take the Queen's shilling.