A man of conscience pays a high price for taking a stand against the Iraq war:
An RAF doctor who refused to go to Iraq on the grounds that the war was illegal was jailed for eight months yesterday in what the judge described as a message to the armed forces about the consequences of rejecting “the policy of Her Majesty’s government”.
Flight Lieutenant Malcolm Kendall-Smith, 37, of dual British and New Zealand citizenship, was found guilty on five counts of disobeying orders after a trial marked by bitter exchanges, in which he compared the actions of US forces to those of Nazi Germany.
Kendall-Smith should be saluted as a brave individual willing to speak out publicly against an illegal war. It is interesting to note that he has supposedly received many words of support from serving British forces. He fits into a noble tradition of refusing service on principle.