The deaths of more than 300 British soldiers in Afghanistan since 2001 are etched on the national consciousness. Each death is gravely announced on television by a newsreader; a day or so later, we learn name and rank; later still, the coffin returns home and passes through Wootton Bassett, where crowds and TV cameras line the streets. It is right to mourn and honour our own, many of whom joined the armed forces not because they yearned to wage war, but because they lacked other opportunities for employment.
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