I have acted for members of a Specialist Unit for 20 years.  My clients do not write books and I have never read any of this genre myself. My clients do not appear in newspapers apart from one isolated report which was so unflattering to my clients case that it was obvious that he was not the source of the information.

I was therefore quite curious to read this book. It recounts the exploits of the Unit in what it calls “a secret war in Iraq”.  It was interesting to read in juxtaposition with the Chilcott Inquiry.  It was also interesting for me, advising in military aviation, to read about matters on the ground of which I have no knowledge. 

 It is clear from the Preface that the Author had some legal skirmishes prior to publication. I am not at all surprised.  My overwhelming initial feeling is not – how did this come to be published? But how did the Author have access to all this information?

 My clients have life long duties of confidentiality. An Investigative Journalist self-evidently does not.  These are clever people that they are dealing with and I can only think about they think it’s a good idea for this information to be in the public domain. Whether the families that I represent whose loved ones appear in the book share this feeling I rather doubt.

Colonel Stuart Tootal who was Commander of 3^rd Battalion the Parachute Regiment wrote in the Times last week that the success in Afghanistan and other similar areas of conflict requires “boots on the ground”; enough soldiers to take the territory and hold it and work with the local people. He supports the view of General Sir David Richards, the Chief of General Staff, that soldiers are ultimately more important than advanced technological aids.  It must be right that without the necessary manpower the equipment, no matter how advanced, will ultimately fail. That manpower needs to be trained and experienced.  The Puma review by Air Vice-Marshall Carl Dixon of May 2008 highlighted the problems that emerge when resources are stretched. Pumas were left in Iraq when the Chinooks deployed to Afghanistan and the Puma Force found themselves being called upon for many more years than had originally been anticipated. Problems emerged,  not from the lack of aircraft, but from the lack of experienced flying personnel.  We see it all the time in our cases in the ages of the victims and the deceased. The operational pressures that were put on some of the flying Puma Force are not easily understood by those of us who have never flown the aircraft here let alone engaging the enemy in complex manoeuvres at night on NVG with high threat levels and dynamic, ever changing intelligence and mission. It would be wrong of us to ask Service Personnel to take on these pressures too frequently, too early and too often.