North East Dads Of Iraq War Dead Split Over Raids

26 September 2014, 08:01 | Updated: 26 September 2014, 08:20

John Miller from Washington and John Hyde from Northallerton who both lost a son during the last Iraq war have opposing views on whether the UK should carry out airstrikes in the country.

21 year old Corporal Simon Miller, and 23 year old Lance Corporal Ben Hyde were two of the six Red Caps, Royal Military Police, brutally killed by an angry mob in Majar al Kabir in southern Iraq on 24 June 2003.

Now, their dads have opposing views on whether UK forces should intervene once again in the fate of Iraq, with airstrikes to take out Islamic State militants.

John Miller says RAF airstrikes would only "fuel the fire" of extremists planning terrorist atrocities.

He says:
"We look at how the Arab world sees the Western world, particularly Britain and America, over what happened in Iraq and it's only fuelling the fire. It's a recruiting programme.

The securest thing for our countries would be not to be involved and it will not give them any reason to want to commit a terrorist attack in our country."

Mr Miller believes we have already opened what he calls "Pandora's box" in the Middle East and we will never be able to close it again.

He fears his son Simon and all those other British soldiers who have given their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan may have died in vain.

John Hyde, who lives in Northallerton, is in favour of any assistance the UK can offer in Iraq with the exception of "boots on the ground".

He says:
"Anything short of that we should give.

Training troops, advice, air support, anything we can give, because in the end the outcome must be positive.

"It's an international problem and I think it is something the international community should solve."