Sorrow and anger in Wootton Basset as dead soldiers return

People lined the streets of Wootton Bassett in Wiltshire on Tuesday to show their respects for the British soldiers recently killed in Afghanistan.

Martin Pearce and Bruce Sherward were both at the parade wearing their RAF medals. Martin told Socialist Worker, “We’ve got to bring all the troops home now, alive rather than dead. We have to send this message to parliament – they are sending young men out there to die for nothing.”

Bruce agreed. “This war isn’t going to solve anything. It makes soldiers feel terrible to be fighting a war but not to know why they are there.”