WHETHER or not you agree with the British Army's involvement in the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, showing your opposition by defacing a monument to those who died is completely wrong.

On the war memorial in the Cenotaph Park Gardens in Stroud, below the tribute to those who died in the Second World War, someone has used a chisel to scratch out the line "and all subsequent campaigns".

The message? That those who died in conflicts after 1945 should not be honoured – and the men and women who fell in Iraq and Afghanistan are the target.

Now, people are entitled to oppose the involvement of our army in Iraq and Afghanistan, and they can also criticise the British servicemen and women who took part in those conflicts because, unlike the two world wars, there was no conscription and thus they chose to enlist and go out there.

But they were serving their country with the aim of making the world a safer place and thus deserve respect, and defacing a memorial is both disrespectful to them and their grieving families.