by John Kennedy

Just the other weekend I heard the news that many of the UK’s armed forces based in Iraq would be coming home soon, for their families and friends this must have been great news and yet this had hardly sunk in when two soldiers were shot dead outside a army barracks in County Antrim Northern Ireland, yes the spectre of republican terrorism had risen once again. 

Yet  179 members of our armed services have died in Iraq and a further 151 have died in Afghanistan, now we add a further 2 who have died whilst waiting to be deployed to Afghanistan, the brunt of these casualties have been born by the Army followed closely by the Royal Marines and then the Royal Air Force,  all three services have lost personnel yet here back in London the loss or impact isn’t really felt for millions of us live and work in the capital but the  majority of armed service personnel I meet come from other parts of the United Kingdom.

These young men and women just get on with life and do what is asked of them by their commanders but ultimately our politicians, we have sent them into battle ill equipped but they just get on with soldiering and after the deployment to Helmand province in Afghanistan the Army and Royal Marines have come up against a vicious defiant enemy who changes tactics to suit the theatre of battle and still after 151 deaths our armed service personnel do not have enough helicopters in place, something they have been requesting for some time now.

But what can we do back  here in the UK, could we not have a home coming parade through London, we turned out in the droves to watch a Olympic torch be paraded by Chinese security personnel and the odd celebrity so why not welcome the service personnel home with a march past down the Mall. But whilst we are this close to Trafalgar Square maybe those artists who so kindly wish to display so much of their contemporary art on the fourth plinth would spare a thought for the debt we owe our armed services and maybe think of those who have paid the ultimate sacrifice by giving their life whilst on operational duties abroad. 

Now I know the cenotaph honours all those who have fallen on foreign soil but maybe we should honour all our hero’s by remembering the fallen from the Falkland’s War to the present day operation in Afghanistan on a new monument to be placed upon the fourth plinth remembering those who gave their lives for the sake of others. I’m sure a contemporary artist could produce a moving monument that would mean so much to loved ones and members of Her Majesty’s Armed Services, something that would show the debt we owe.