Sent to BBC today
Dear Panorama
BBC Panorama - WAR CRIMES EXPOSED:
Slurring British Military without Proven Evidence
I am an Army Veteran who served on operations in countries from Falklands to Arabia during my 25 years service.
Through watching your tax funded programme last night and reading press and online articles, I am getting increasingly paranoid about it now. I am genuinely apprehensive and worried that you, together with other Political and Establishment figures, are out to criminalize or 'get me' and a lot of my military colleagues.
I am sure I am not alone. One just have to look on military colleagues blogs or Facebook pages to see the enormous amount of fear like mine, that your high profile programme last night generates unnecessary fear for veterans. This site has many such comments:
What I find totally incomprehensible is that it is the British tax funded broadcaster making these unproven slurs on us ex-military. BBC an organisation that my father, ex-World War II, Desert Rat hero, my son ex-Military too and I, have all mandatory had to contribute to since the broadcasting licence inception.
Immediately it came to mind last night watching the programme that if it is our National broadcaster making these unproven slurs, even more people will be thinking bad of those of us who were sent on operations on behalf of the nation.
Those ant-British forces people in politics, religion and naive members of the population who will now be thinking us soldiers are sort of evil and undisciplined, corrupt, acting out some psychopathic fantasies, during our arduous and sometimes distressing duties..
When the reality is entirely the opposite for us who diligently did our sometimes extremely unpleasant, distressing duty with fortitude and courage, hoping our Government decision to send us to war were truthfully and honestly justified for putting us, (including our adversaries), in such dangerous and perilous situations.
There are often split second decisions to be made which can be questionable later: Just look at the dilemma faced by the British soldier who did the mercy killing of a POW whilst I was in Falklands campaign:
I wish to complain officially about your programme last night, as you come across as totally unfit for service dealers in such low grade, unproven slurs on the military.
Yours sincerely,