It’s not often that a news story makes my blood boil but the piece about defacing the war memorial in Stroud (20/6) did.

How can it be allowed to criticise the men and women who were involved in the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts?

As your editor mentioned, they were just doing their jobs in extremely hostile environments, many died and many more were severely injured both physically and mentally.

Many did not sign up purposely just to go out there.

As you might of guessed I served in both conflicts and I was in the military long before these conflicts materialised.

I have seen first hand where Saddam gassed and tortured people, where the Taliban/Al Qaeda threw non believers off a 10m high dive board into an empty swimming pool, or locked women into iso-containers with a live grenade to boot.

I could go on but won’t.

The idiot who defaced the war memorial has the benefit of freedom thanks to the generations of service people who served in our fine military and those who made the ultimate sacrifice.

Scott Temlett

Dursley