Scots attack leaders over death of 'economic conscript' in Iraq
Nineteen-year-old Gordon Gentle left his home in Glasgow's rough-and-tumble Pollok area to join the army, learn a trade and see the world. Three months later he became the 60th British serviceman to die in Iraq.
As the young soldier was laid to rest with full military honours this week, a respected church minister launched a scathing attack from the pulpit on British Prime Minister Tony Blair and US President George W. Bush, holding the two world leaders personally responsible for Gentle's death.
The Reverend John Mann lashed out at the foreign policy decisions that led indirectly to the raw recruit being caught in a roadside ambush on the day sovereignty was handed back to the Iraqis. 'To President George W. Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair I have only three words of admonishment, and I pray that they may some day be inscribed on the tablets of your hearts. And those three words are: 'Shame on you'.'
Dr Mann told mourners: 'I am angry at the politicians who have never personally experienced the horror of war, and yet so easily send others to that horror.'
The leader of the Pollok community council, George McNeilage, said the teenager was an 'economic conscript' forced into uniform by poverty.
As a friend of the family, Mr McNeilage had tried to talk Gentle out of enlisting with the Royal Highland Fusiliers. 'His words to me were: 'I am only getting a bit of work here and there ... [if I join the army] I'll get to see parts of the world I wouldn't get to see, I'll get a permanent wage and I might get a trade out of it',' he recalled.
Gentle was on his first active posting when his army vehicle drove over a bomb in Basra on June 28, just hours before the handover.
His mother, Rose Gentle, attacked Mr Blair and Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon for sending her son to Iraq.
'My son was just a bit of meat to them, just a number. They haven't even taken the trouble of picking up the phone to say they're sorry for our loss.'
A Church of Scotland spokeswoman yesterday said that the reverend had no regrets about his eulogy and 'stands by everything he said'.
