MAY I please comment on two items in recent issues of the Evening Advertiser, February 21 and 22 respectively.

Firstly it is most heartening to see the letter, "I'm with you all the way, Mr Blair," written by 17-year-old Daniel Lake. That a youngster, in an age where drugs, booze and sex are rife, should take the time, interest and trouble to express serious and sensible views of current events affecting the nation, is to be admired and commended.

I link this to "A Soldier's Story of War," where a veteran of the last Gulf conflict said: "I don't condone the war but I feel that we didn't do it right last time. When I was in the Gulf we had the backing of the British people. They would send us boxes of goodies which was a huge morale booster. But it seems that because nobody is backing this war, they aren't backing our troops either. That is worrying. We should be supporting our people."

I was a young man in the 1940s and on my 18th birthday I received my calling up papers. I was no lover of war but King and Country wanted me so I went. I had little option than to serve. Today our young men and women are answering the call to serve Queen and Country. Then and now we simply obey orders.

We were and they are Brits, British and proud of it. So let us support them.

In the 1930s we ignored the build-up of Adolf Hitler to our eventual peril. Almost six years of bloody conflict followed with the loss of millions of innocent lives.

The tyrant Saddam has gone too far already.

He has got to be stopped or does history repeat itself?

IVAN E RICKWOOD

Islandsmead

Eldene, Swindon