RAF doctor who refused Iraq service is jailed

Independent Online Edition > Legal:

"An RAF doctor who refused to serve in Iraq because he believed the war to be illegal was jailed for eight months yesterday.

The conviction and imprisonment of Flight Lieutenant Malcolm Kendall-Smith, the first member of the armed forces to be charged with disobeying orders to deploy in Iraq, has provoked widespread condemnation. Anti-war groups declared that a man who had shown great moral courage and acted according to his conscience was being pilloried for his beliefs."

We were talking about this today and have been ever since he was jailed. This is a man of conscience , with values, who has served twice in Iraq and who is a decent, upstanding citizen. The best we can do is jail him for his decency. The others? They may do as they please. We are truly sickened by our hypocritical society which supports corruption and destruction. This man has done his bit and has a conscience . The invasion of Iraq is illegal. We all know this but international law has no relevance any more and we know that too. That is hardly Flight Lieutenant Malcolm Kendall-Smith's fault. We are all so angry about this. All of our thoughts are with him.