Responsibility does not stop with squaddies

he report published yesterday after Sir William Gage’s inquiry into the death of Iraqi civilian Baha Mousa at the hands of 1st Battalion The Queen’s Lancashire Regiment (1QLR) makes deeply uncomfortable reading for the British Army, the Ministry of Defence and politicians who rely on the supposedly more disciplined behaviour of our armed services to justify intervention in other countries.

It shows the father of two died after an “appalling episode of serious gratuitous violence”. Officers who could have stopped the abuse, including the former commanding officer, bore a “heavy responsibility”.

Shockingly, the report says 1QLR’s Catholic chaplain visited the detention centre where Mr Mousa died, but did not have the courage to report what he saw.

The inquiry can do nothing for Mr Mousa’s orphaned sons, but it should have a number of consequences. If there can be further action by the army or the prosecutors against any of the men involved, then it should be taken swiftly. This episode should also lead to a rethink of the role we expect our soldiers to play in places like Iraq. They are not trained to be police officers in such threatening conditions.

Although the trooops who carried out the attacks cannot escape blame, the responsibility lies more with the senior officers who failed to act against such abuses than with brutalised squaddies. The MoD must train soldiers and officers better. And finally, politicians might consider whether it was right to send young, terrified soldiers into Iraq in the first place.